Childhood Friends
by CrystalMaiden77
Summary: How was the friendship between Scourge and Miles during the first year they knew each other? How was their friendship before they met Alicia and the others? Here's how I see it.
1. Chapter 1

At the young age of 12, before he had met any of the members of the Anti-Freedom Fighters, Scourge traveled to a place nicknamed The Island of Storms on his father's luxury ship after hearing a news report his father was watching mention an incredibly fast-moving two-tailed thief, and getting the idea to take advantage of his super speed for himself. He had no idea how old the thief was, and didn't watch the news long enough to even see the picture of what he looked like. All he knew was that there was a really speedy two-tailed fox on a stormy island and he could finally have a friend who'd be able to keep up with him.

When he heard a child screaming when he was running through the island's woods and curiously went to see what was going on, he saw the horrifying sight of a very young fox Moebian tied to a stake with straw beneath it that had fire moving towards him as he screamed. He was surrounded by teenagers in leather jackets, who were smirking at what was happening to him. Without even a split-second taken to think about it, Scourge immediately ran in a circle around the stake to put out the fire with a tornado of wind from his speed, and slammed the teenagers to the ground afterwards, enraged that such a thing was even happening. Something about seeing that kind of inexplicable cruelty to a kid that young made something in him snap, and it was as if he was acting on autopilot as he instinctively tried to save him. It didn't even occur to him how odd it was for him until several minutes later.

" Leave him alone! " he shouted at the bullies, as they ran away from him cursing in fear. " He's a child! " he shouted with his fist vengefully in the air. As much as he wanted to keep attacking them and give them what they deserved, he had to prioritize untying the kid first, because if he went after the bullies as they scattered away from him, he might not know how to get back to where he was. The kid would've never been untied without him, rendering his rescue of him pointless, and Scourge refused to have that happen because of his unfamiliarity with the island.

Scourge narrowly managed to save what turned out to be a two-tailed fox from a dangerous life-threatening situation, noticing that there were cuts and bruises all over his body that needed treating, and untied his ropes from behind the stake saying reassuringly, " That'll learn 'em. If I ever find those bastards again, I'll kill 'em. " Unfortunately, he had no idea how menacing he actually sounded, and the kid was so scared and paranoid that he ran away from him in a panic upon being untied, speeding away in a yellow blur that revealed to him that he was the thief he was looking for. Scourge was surprised and called out, " Hey, wait! " running after him in a confused panic.

He didn't understand. Even after he saved the kid's life, he was so rattled by his past experience that it still ended up taking him several minutes of convincing and making himself look like a softie in front of him to get him to come live with him. He was still living in his father's mansion back then, and his parents were apathetic and focused on work enough that they didn't mind Miles coming to live with them as long as he behaved when he was at home.

After Miles finished the first scoops of ice cream he'd ever been given, his previous injuries already covered in gauze and healing, Scourge gave him a full tour of his parents' house to get him familiar with his new home. Giving him that tour was a learning experience for him that taught him some unsettling things about the child's past.

Miles didn't like being in the kitchen while the chef was using a knife, and Scourge had to shush him and slowly usher him out of the room. He didn't fail to realize, though, that the servants of the home gave him a very brief confused and surprised look before immediately going right back to doing their jobs, instead of making a snide comment at best or attacking him with a knife at worst, and he was dumbfounded and speechless at their apathetic reaction.

Later, Scourge showed him the living room, saying unhappily, " My ' parents ' like it here. You don't really need to be here, since you've got a TV in your room and all. " He didn't want to encourage Miles to spend more time with his neglectful parents; for all he knew, that would only cause him to annoyingly side with them when they nag him. With the intent of his discouraging going right over his head, Miles asked, " I've always wanted to know, what's that called? What's it do? " pointing to the right of the television.

" Oh, that? That's a fireplace! It's all warm and toasty. Wanna try? " Scourge said cheerfully, only to stop smiling upon turning to Miles and realizing how the mere mention of fire frightened him. " N-Never mind, " he said quietly, remembering his previous experience with fire, and faked a smile walking up to him as he said, " Let's look at the rest of the house, shall we? " getting him to follow him out of the room.

Being even so much as near the basement's washroom filled him with dread, causing Scourge to have to reassure him that he'd never have to use it and bring him to the " much fancier one, " upstairs, not wanting to think about why he might have had that kind of reaction. Miles looked uneasy at seeing a cleaning spray on top of the shelf near the toilet, and asked quietly, " I-I hate the smell of those things. Do the servants use it often? "

There was a brief silence, before Scourge hid it in the nearby trash can and said with a sly grin, thumbs-up and wink, " Not anymore. " He tried his best to appear lighthearted as possible and give Miles hope for the future, but it was hard to ignore the worrying implications of just how much abuse he had been through. " Did… people use those sprays on you? " he asked nervously, and Miles nodded reluctantly, wishing he wasn't so easy to read.

" Figures. The bastards. Don't worry, pal. Someday the bullies on that island will get what they deserve, " Scourge said resentfully. Upon noticing that his expression only made Miles nervous, he smiled again, and said, " Now I think it's about time you took a bath to get all those stains out of your fur. " Miles looked down at himself sadly at the look of all the dirt, grass and sand stains out of his fur, and Scourge continued, " What, you think I'd forget? Come on, get in there before ya get sick. Don't worry, I'll replace the bandages and stuff when you're done. And I'll keep the door locked so no one will go in on ya. "

Scourge quickly ran to the nearby closet and back to bring a washcloth to the bathtub, and put beside it a cup with liquid soap. Miles asked him nervously, " That tiny bathroom in the basement can't be locked from the outside, can it? " His pupils shrinking a little from briefly wondering what kind of experience would make Miles afraid of that, Scourge hurriedly said forcing his smile, " No, no, it can't, no one uses it anyways. I'll be in my room watchin' TV. Call me when you're done. "

After Scourge closed the bathroom door behind him leaving him alone, Miles hesitated a bit before taking off his worn gloves and shoes, turning the knob to fill up the bathtub with warm water. He waited impatiently for the water to fill up, and eventually climbed in when it was ready for him, soon smiling at the warmth. With that, he proceeded to clean the stains out of his fur with a washcloth and soap, awkwardly trying to wash around the gauze and bandages that hurt just to touch. It had been so long since he had taken the risk of taking a bath instead of a shower he could quickly escape from, and it felt so good knowing that he was safe doing that for the first time that he could remember.

After he was finally done, he left the bathtub, drained the water, toweled himself off, called for Scourge, and winced and grimaced as the hedgehog took off his soaking wet bandages and gauze to replace them. " Thank you, " Miles said politely when it was all over. Scourge said, " No problem, " standing up from the floor, and started admiring himself in the mirror upon noticing his reflection in it. He said proudly, " You're gonna see, Miles, that when I'm older, all the ladies will love me! "

Scourge noticed an uncomfortable silence rather than Miles happily agreeing, and his eyes were soon drawn to Miles' reflection in the mirror, showing him that the kid was sadly looking away from it in disgust, hiding his second tail behind his first one. Scourge didn't fail to notice, and sighed quietly, before giving him a reassuring shoulder rub and saying, " Don't worry, kiddo. I'm sure the ladies will love you, too! Come on, you should get some sleep early, you've had a hard day, " as he walked him out of the room and led him to the guest room he would sleep in. He enthusiastically talked about the television in it, explained that he would be the one in charge of him since he was the older and wiser one there, and left after assuring him that he would have an excellent breakfast.

Miles' dream the first time he slept in that house was one full of guilt and self-loathing. For the first time, his bullies in his nightmares called him not just a freak, but a criminal, demonizing him even more than they already did. He ended up waking up very early in the morning and crying until it was time for breakfast, desperately wishing that his only friend was there to comfort him, and as a result, he was visibly tired when Scourge cheerfully got him up for breakfast, and he was determined to not let that ruin the rest of his day. After all, he was no stranger to being sleep-deprived, and recovered from it pretty quick considering how well he slept in that bed.

Miles couldn't believe how much he enjoyed the breakfast he was given. It was an excellently cooked assortment of bacon, toast, and a cheese and mushroom omelette, that Scourge was sure to get made to welcome him to the family. He had never enjoyed a breakfast so much in his life. No one had ever cooked him breakfast before. He had cooked breakfast for himself during the times when he was hiding in unoccupied homes, but it felt so much better having someone else cook for him, like he was being provided for instead of having to take care of himself. " Thanks, Sonic! O-Oh, and you too, chef, " he said, nervously giving the proper person the credit they deserved while feeling very shy about speaking to a stranger. At some point during breakfast, he jumped startled at hearing a fork scratching against a plate, and stayed nervous and on edge for a few minutes afterwards, causing Scourge to worry about him even more.

Several hours later, he was invited into the kitchen, and gasped sharply at seeing candles lit on top of the chocolate-looking dessert on the table. Scourge quickly realized what was worrying him, and said, " I-It's okay, Miles! You blow them out to make a wish! It's a birthday tradition, " with a nervous smile. Miles took a few seconds to calm down, and laughed nervously going up to his seat, self-conscious of just how many times he had looked scared in front of him already. He blew out the candles as fast as he could, trying to ignore the stench of smoke that they left, and not-so-subtly backed his chair away from the chef in fear as he leaned over to cut the cake for him, removing the candles beforehand. With that, Miles enjoyed eating a chocolate cheesecake with Scourge, having never tasted anything of the sort before.

When the two of them were finally done, Scourge asked, " Want any more? " staring at the rest of the cake longingly. Miles shrugged with a smile and said generously, " I'm full, but you can have some more if you want. " Scourge eagerly gave himself another plate of it, and Miles worried briefly that he'd give himself a stomach-ache, before saying happily, " It was delicious! Though not as much as tea, and not as much as the broccoli, " referring to the supper he had right before it. Scourge gave him a confused look, and then ruffled his hair and chuckled saying, " You're weird, " rolling his eyes at his strange tastes. " I'll make sure to put tea on the grocery list from now on, " he continued.

This gave Miles mixed messages, as he was very upset at being called weird again, but loved the affection he was clearly getting, and this left him looking sad and staring into space for a couple seconds after smiling from it. " What's wrong? " Scourge asked when he finally noticed his sad look. " Y-Yeah, I, I am weird… " Miles responded sadly with a forced smile, trying to hide the fact that he was annoyed with the only friend he had.

Realizing he had screwed up, Scourge stammered a bit before saying, " Don't worry, Miles, I was just joking around. I like that you're different from the other boring people. It's part of what makes ya so lovable! " He promptly felt embarrassed at letting that last sentence slip out, but his regret faded when, after staring at him stunned letting it sink in, Miles got a great big smile on his face and embraced him in a hug, not even caring that he was still sitting on a chair.

" Lovable! Wow… I'm loved?! " he exclaimed, and Scourge took a second to return the hug from how surprised he was at it all. Realizing he had to react quickly out of the risk of hurting his feelings, Scourge figured he might as well be completely honest while he was at it, and admitted, " Yeah… 'Course I love ya… Screw my parents, you're my _real_ family! " It had been so long since Scourge had bothered trying to tell anyone that he loved them, and for the first time, he was able to hear it back.

" I love you, too! You're the best friend ever! " Miles replied, overwhelmed with joy. He couldn't believe it. For the very first time, he was loved. He was worried that it wasn't really true, but now he had confirmation of that without a shadow of a doubt, and it felt incredible. He would never forget how happy that made him, to finally hear those words.

He stayed in Scourge's home while he recovered from his injuries, watching educational TV shows in his bed and reading the various educational books that Scourge got him from the library. It was a rather uneventful week, especially for Scourge, who mostly had to stay home rather than breaking the law because he knew how sad Miles would be if his only friend spent barely any time with him. There wasn't much excitement, but being able to spend quality time with the first person to really like him made it all worth it, and while he wouldn't admit it to anyone but Miles, he ended up finding the educational shows rather interesting, as useless to him as the knowledge was.

After Miles recovered from the cuts on his tails, hands, and torso, Scourge took him to visit every part of his city over the course of a week, including all the places he found out Miles didn't like. Miles wasn't entirely happy with leaving the house and being stared at by strangers because of it, and asked him standing at the front door, " Wh-What if I get separated from you? What, what if you go left instead of right or something and I turn the wrong way when we're running? What if… "

Scourge looked sad briefly, and said with a reassuring smile, " It'll be fine. I promise. I don't change directions that suddenly. I mean, I can, but I won't if you don't want me to. Besides, your reaction times when you're moving at that speed will match mine, so you'll probably react in time and make the same turn I do. " There was a silence as Miles still looked scared and stared at the front door full of dread.

Knowing he wasn't usually that responsible, Scourge said with a nervous smile, " And hey, if we _do_ ever get separated, here's the plan. Jump into the air and fly high up enough that I might be able to see you over those buildings and, uh, if I can't see where ya are, go back home. You've got a good sense of direction, right? " Miles replied, " Right, " having learned which way was north and gotten it in his head from finding the Northern Star in his island's night sky. He was at the point where he didn't even need a compass.

" But will you notice in time? " he asked, thinking about how if people notice him flying, he'll have to deal with them gawking at him until he flies away. " Sure I will! I'm always gonna be focused on where ya are, I'm never gonna wanna leave ya behind! I wanna keep you safe, and make you, happy... Without you around, it'd be kinda empty-feeling, you know? " Scourge said cheerfully ruffling his hair with the first sentence, and feeling increasingly self-conscious about what he was admitting. He had never cared about someone else so much before, and he hoped the people of the city wouldn't stop being intimidated by him because of it. He'd have to try extra hard to be menacing with people knowing he became best friends with someone so young and innocent, that he'd always be protecting. At the very least, what he said was making Miles feel better, and that made him smile.

" Now come on, kiddo, it's sight-seeing time! " Scourge said eagerly, and held open the door for Miles as he walked out of the mansion, stepping out to the front yard for the first time in a week. Was he truly ready? He had grown fond of spending all his time in Scourge's parents' house hiding from the judgmental people of the world, and now he was expected to go right back to spending most of every day outside, being judged, and now even worse than before because he was going to be breaking the law.

The cuts on his torso, hands and tails were still healing, but their presence was no longer obvious from a mile away making him look like a vulnerable target, with the red stains having long since been washed out of his fur, and the healing process being almost completely finished with the gauze and bandages off him at last. He could feel the wind on his face and how it had stopped stinging what remained of his injuries, and as cloudy as the sky was, there was still a certain something about being out in the sunshine that felt right. He supposed being out in the city wouldn't be so bad, especially since it had a different atmosphere from the island he spent his life on, and that alone made it feel a lot better, even if it did have more people.

Miles looked himself over briefly as Scourge walked up to him closing the door behind him. He put his dark sunglasses over his eyes to better hide the fear in them, and briefly fretted about whether he should zip up his leather jacket for better protection and warmth or keep it unzipped like Scourge. Then he smiled a little at how he thought his new boots looked cool, and flipped the switches on his black bracelets that would make them look spiked again as he would do every time he'd leave the house, smirking a little bit in a failed attempt to imitate Scourge's sly grin that just made Scourge find him cute.

The blue hedgehog beside him put his shades down over his own eyes, opened the large towering black gate blocking the way to his house with a simple push, and said with a grin, " So taking off from here in 3, 2, 1, " and when he said, " Go! " Miles was fully ready to start running alongside him as they moved at slightly below the speed of sound, exiting the front yard at last.

While Miles was able to pretend he wasn't scared on the way to the city, that façade broke the minute he started seeing cars driving across the roads, roads that he normally didn't have to run on at all. He wished he could just fly over everything, but he couldn't fly nearly as fast as he could move by spinning his tails behind him, and that meant that if he wanted to avoid slowing his friend down even more, he had to contend with being close to the ground, close enough that he could get hit by any cars driving on the road as they ran across it.

While Scourge stuck to the sidewalks most of the time, every so often he just had to run across the street to get to his destination, and the sheer anxiety of having to keep up with him during that was hardly something that could easily be gotten rid of. He was worried about the potential consequences of voicing his concerns and complaints to him, when he was already forcing him to run slower just so he could keep up.

What Scourge didn't realize was that one of the biggest things making Miles nervous was the fact that there were cars driving around him, and with their running through the city so quickly without stopping to look both ways before crossing the street, Miles hated every time they left the sidewalk. The last thing he wanted was to be hit by a car again. And knowing Scourge and his recklessness, it was possible that would happen to him as well. What if this cost him the life of the only friend he ever got to have? It was bad enough that there were people everywhere, but flying metal death traps blistering through the roads he needed to run along made the city almost unbearable, and he had to force an angry menacing look on his face to hide the overwhelming fear for his life. He only hoped the cars were something he could get used to.

There were several different places in the city that had things about them that made Miles uneasy. In the zoo, he was nervous just at seeing the animals at all, saying, " I-I don't like this place… " even though he knew the animals were in captivity and couldn't attack him. That caused Scourge to worry about just how many times animals had hurt the kid out in the woods for him to develop a paranoid fear of them in general.

It had to take the course of several days for them to eat lunch at every single restaurant and diner in the city, since they visited one a day, and every time Scourge brought Miles into one of them, he noticed how nervous he was trying to eat the food from it.

The first restaurant he took him to, on the first day he was showing him around the city, was essentially the Moebian equivalent of a Burger King's. Scourge, after forcing the people in line to let him and Miles order first as he always did in lines, and reluctantly handing his stolen money to the worker behind the counter, brought the cheeseburger and veggie burger outside for Miles' sake, and they started eating the lunch they ordered, sitting outside near the restaurant window.

He noticed Miles' hesitation to eat, and smiled saying playfully, " You sure you really want veggies in your burgers? You don't seem that eager. " Miles shook his head and explained nervously, " It's not that. What if they put something in our food to make us sick? What if they, you know, did something with it to spite us? " Scourge once again saw that familiar look on Miles' face as the kid stared into the distance full of dread, looking haunted by the memories of his past, and even he was worried for a little while, knowing full well that people making food in restaurants would do that to spite him occasionally. But after briefly looking beneath the bun of his burger, he reassured Miles,

" Don't worry about it. They won't do anything that gets me mad. There's not that many people stupid enough to take that risk! And since you're with me, they're gonna know they can't do anything to you either, 'cause I would make them pay if they did. Just eat, alright? I paid for it, after all. " Miles peeked beneath the bun of his veggie burger, nodded, and took a bite of it quickly, smiling after tasting it for the first time.

Scourge smiled warmly at seeing how happy it made him, while also being amused once again at how Miles was the only kid he knew who appreciated vegetables that much. Staring ahead eating his burger with a cute litle fox sitting right beside him, Scourge thought, " _I guess I should be grateful he likes veggies that much. Maybe he wouldn't have lived for so long with barely any food if he didn't get such a taste for healthy stuff… The poor kid... Damn it. He's not making me go soft, is he? I've, never been so worried about anybody before… 'Course, he's got plenty to be worried about, and he's the only one who knows how great I am, so I got every reason to care, but… I told him I'm a badass law-breaker and aside from cutting in line, I haven't really proven my point. But does he care about that at all? He… still looks really happy with me…_ "

After a brief hesitation, he asked, " Hey, Miles? " this time making sure to speak a bit quieter than normal to avoid startling him again. " Yeah? " Miles said between bites, looking over at him. A bit awkward, Scourge explained unnecessarily, " You know what I meant by I paid for it, right? Like, I usually don't pay for stuff. It's only in places where I pretty much have to wait to get stuff prepared for me, where I have to count on the people running the place being willing to serve me and letting me come back, you know. 'Cause I have to specifically tell them what I want to make sure I get what I want, and I have to wait for them to finish making the burgers, I can't just find my order already made wherever it is and take it. B-Basically I follow the rules with these places out of necessity. That don't mean I'm some, boring rules-following guy like everybody else, oh, no! It's like I said earlier, Miles, I'm the fastest thief in the world! But some places are just too complicated to take what you want from. "

Miles nodded politely, not really seeming to be fazed by it. " That makes sense, " he replied after swallowing his most recent bite of his lunch. " So you don't mind? You don't think I'm just… " Scourge said in confusion, looking away from him as he realized while speaking that he was revealing that he cared about what he thought of him. Did he really grow that attached so quickly that he was outright trying to impress him? " _I always care about my image, this is nothin' new,_ " he thought. He was always the type to show off, no matter who was in front of him.

" No, no, it's fine. I'd do the same thing. If it's completely impractical, it seems silly to break a law just for the sake of it. It's more reliable to just pay for the meal to know what you're getting. You don't need to be a rule-breaker _all_ the time. You're still a badass lawbreaker, just one who's smart enough to be practical, " Miles said casually, trying to hide how he was worried about offending him. He really didn't need Scourge to be a criminal to like him as a person, and a part of him outright wished he wasn't one, but he wasn't sure if telling him that would make him think he wanted to change him or something like that, when he was desperate enough for a friend that he was willing to accept him for who he was. Scourge smiled, thinking, " _Smart…_ " basking in the compliment and just how rare it was for him to be called that. " Thanks, Miles. You should say that more often! " he replied.

The next time they were about to cross the street, Miles blurted out nervously, " Could I at least fly over the streets instead of running in front of cars every time I do it?!... I-I don't wanna be a nuisance telling you to stop to look left and right every time you're about to run across the road, but I-I-I just don't wanna, I don't want anything to happen. They're _dangerous,_ Sonic! "

Scourge stared at him with a worried expression for a couple seconds, wondering if he had been hit by a car before, and finally said, " Okay, fine. Fly over the roads when you get to crossing 'em, and I'll, quickly look both ways and then wait on the other side for ya. That'll happen every time we get to crossing the street from now on. Just try to fly fast at least. You're good at that already, but this is a great opportunity to get even better! " Miles sighed in relief and said to him, " Thanks. " Perhaps he didn't need to worry after all.

After that, Scourge brought Miles to the farm providing food to the city. After running up to the grazing area staying at Miles' speed so he could keep up, he jumped into the air and landed on the ground below in a fancy way to show off, wanting to stop without Miles running past him for too long. It was hardly new for him. " And here's the place that gives the city its food! Well, the food that's not imported, at least, " he said. There was a silence, and he stopped smiling upon seeing Miles' reaction. Not only did the child back away nervously from the grazing cattle and sheep, but noticing the hay outside made him get worried, and he stared at it with his pupils shrunken full of dread.

" You okay? " Scourge asked quietly as he slowly walked up to him and carefully placed his hand on Miles' shoulder. He knew right away what he was being reminded of. For once, Miles was reliving a memory that Scourge had witnessed firsthand. " I… " Miles said quietly, vividly remembering how he had been tied to a wooden stake with straw just like that below it that was set on fire by three different people. The only reason he didn't get hurt by that experience, was that Scourge showed up in a blue tornado of wind and put out the flames to save him.

" You're my hero… " he complimented with a nervous smile, leaving Scourge stunned and struck speechless at having never been called that before. " _Me, a hero?_ " he thought looking worried and embarrassed. " For you, yeah, " he replied with nervous body language, trying to sound as casual as possible. At the very least, he knew he was a hero to Miles, and was proud of that. But was he a heroic person in general? He cut in line and stole and fought purely out of selfishness and thrills, and got satisfaction out of annoying people rather than shame. But he couldn't deny that being there for Miles and standing up for him was the definition of heroic. There had to be more to him than just the juvenile delinquent image he was so proud of if he was going to such efforts for a two-tailed child just to have a friend.

" I was so lucky that I screamed… " Miles whispered, and Scourge, overhearing that horrifying sentence, could only say, " Wh-What? Why? " despite agreeing with his conclusion. He went around to the front of him, putting both his hands on his shoulders looking serious. " Because I usually didn't. Because it only attracted more people to where I was, and the minute they saw what made me different, they turned on me and gave me _hell…_ even if they were rushing to help me before! Every time I screamed for help, it only made things worse… But _you_ weren't like that. You were different from them!... Maybe because you weren't from their island, " Miles said sadly, holding back tears, and while Scourge would never admit it, he was doing the same thing just from hearing that.

Scourge said bitterly clenching his fist, " Maybe there's just something wrong with island people in general. I-I've heard the farmer here complain about, ' city folk, ' but at least _we_ know to keep our mouths _shut._ When _we_ see something or someone different, we don't draw attention to ourselves by making a big deal out of it in public. We don't gang up on and attack people for looking different, we just go about our lives. City folk don't spend all that time hunting a kid down for just living on their precious island. " Miles commented with downcast eyes, " Yeah, they just stare at me silently judging. "

Briefly stroking his head to get him to look up at him, Scourge said, " That's better than before. City people like us prefer to blend in with the rest of the crowd so we can do what we want in peace. Well, not me, I _love_ attention, but I'm talking normal people here, who aren't as cool as me. People working in the city just wanna get to work and the other spots they wanna go, they're in too much of a hurry to point and laugh, and with all the hustle and bustle, there's also lots of new stuff happening in life to distract 'em and make 'em forget. That's why they call us a fickle folk. "

Miles, who smiled briefly at the affection and giggled at Scourge calling himself cool finding it inspiring and charismatic, returned to looking depressed rather quickly, and grumbled, " I hear what they say. I'm the talk of the town, and I've been here for over a week. I don't think that'll ever change. "

Scourge sighed sadly and said with a dismissive wand of his hand, " That's 'cause this city has _nothing_ going on. It's a slow news day, every day. Especially recently, " resentfully thinking of his father and how he stopped the wars of the world by taking it over. From his perspective, day-to-day life didn't really improve, just stop getting worse. All his father did was cause stagnation. From his perspective, at least the chaos of the wars beforehand were interesting. At least technology was still progressing, aside from Dr. Kintobar's. He smiled affectionately at Miles and said, " Now come on, let's go somewhere else. " Miles nodded, and they both ran out of the farm beside each other in a blue and yellow blur.

Miles didn't seem to like the baseball park, either, as just the sight of the people playing baseball got him scared and quiet. Scourge wondered what about it was worrying him, the fear of being hit by one of the baseballs or the baseball bats the men were holding. " Did they have baseball parks on your island, Miles? " he asked him, watching them to the left of the bleachers.

" W-What? Uh… I think I saw one once. Is that where those weapons come from?! " Miles said nervously standing beside him, and hid behind him gasping when one of the men swung their bat. " Weapons? " Scourge whispered in horror. He looked down at the ground unhappily for a while, letting that imagery sink in, and then said quietly, " L-Let's just go. " With that, the two of them ran away from the baseball park, never intending to return. Scourge had brought Miles there and stayed in front of it for so long in the first place to try to get him to be a bit more masculine, thinking that would be good for the kid, but it soon became clear that he was too intimidated by sports, and had every reason to be.

As Scourge ran through the city with Miles easily keeping up with him at his side, turning slowly enough that he wouldn't catch him by surprise, he couldn't help but worry. While most of the parts of the city he showed Miles didn't upset him too much, aside from the usual social anxiety, the sheer amount of dread he showed at seeing the most innocuous of things was concerning. Thankful that Miles wasn't able to see his expression at the moment, Scourge thought unhappily, " _Come on, Sonic, think. What part of a city would make a kid really happy?... A toy store! Of course! There's one in the mall!_ "

He led Miles to the mall, running through the leftmost side of its parking lot, and said with a confident but playful grin, " There's one last place I wanna take ya today. " He stopped in front of the mall's glass doors as they automatically opened in front of him, and Miles exclaimed with wide-open eyes, " _Cool!_ They opened by _themselves!_ When you said you belonged to a rich and powerful family, you weren't kidding! " smiling in amazement at the sight. Scourge looked at him with an amused expression and a cocked eyebrow, and decided to let him believe that until he figured it out for himself. " _Why ruin his fun?_ " he thought, as Miles followed him into the first ever mall he had ever seen.

They made a quick run through of the place, with Scourge very briefly showing him every store just for the sake of it, and then finally, Scourge said, " I've saved the best for last! " and led him into the toy store with a smile. " You can have whatever you want here, ' little bro! ' " Scourge said walking ahead of Miles in one of the toy aisles, and chuckled thinking to himself, " _I wonder if this is like letting a bull loose in a china store? Or a kid loose in a candy store? Though Miles never liked candy…_ "

Unfortunately, the eerie lack of footsteps behind him took him out of his high spirits, and he nervously turned around to see a familiar haunted look on Miles' face. Even the bright and colorful-looking toys, things that seemed completely harmless, were filling him with dread. Scourge thought sadly, " _I'm starting to think there's something seriously wrong with him…_ " shocked at the idea that he could be afraid of even that. He slowly approached him and said quietly, " Miles? " hoping he wouldn't startle him and get him running away in a panic.

" Uh… " Miles forced himself to say, still lost in a feeling of dread and fear that he couldn't quite explain. " What's the problem? " Scourge asked, trying to very carefully word his question to avoid sounding judgmental or dismissive. He knew very well how overly sensitive Miles could be, to the point where occasionally, it got annoying. " I don't, know… I don't… remember… " Miles whispered staring at the toys, and Scourge looked even more worried, and was thankful that no one happened to be there to witness it.

Trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, he asked, " Do you think anyone, hurt you with these? " Miles looked around the aisle, his eyes darting back and forth as he took the sight of it in, and said quietly, " Probably when I was too young to remember it. I can't imagine the people at the orphanage let me play with any toys, so maybe… I, I just… Do you really think I should have these? "

There was a silence, and Miles tried to keep tears from coming out of his eyes, wanting to avoid embarrassing himself or his new friend. All Scourge could say was, " Miles… " He couldn't believe it. After all of those years of being treated like someone whose life wasn't valuable, who didn't deserve anything that made him happy, could a part of Miles have been brainwashed into agreeing with it? How could he get his confidence up if he was so full of insecurity and shame that was deeply engrained in him no matter what he did?

" Of course you should. You're clever, and devoted, and loyal, and talented… You're the best person I've ever met. Don't listen to all the lies that you've been told, " he comforted Miles, and put his arms around him in a hug, which the kid returned with a small smile. A tear still managed to escape his eye, but he wiped it away, and giggled nervously.

After the hug was over, Scourge said trying to act as cheerful and eager as usual, " Let's just take a quick run through all the aisles to see if there's anything you like, " and Miles nodded, running after him obediently. They never did find anything Miles was willing to ask for. While a few of the toys looked tempting, specifically the handheld gaming devices, there was a part of him that was terrified of asking for them or even so much as touching them, as if he'd only receive a smack and a scolding for his efforts. He felt like he shouldn't have any of them, that it was wrong, and the most frustrating thing of all was that he knew how irrational he was being and couldn't stop feeling that way. Leaving the mall, the only thing Miles liked about the experience in the end was that he could hear music playing in it, and even then, it was too hard to hear it clearly over the sound of the wind rushing past him and Scourge as they ran through the mall.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Scourge was just about to leave the house with Miles when one of the maids said to him, " Wait! Your father told me to give you a message. " Scourge shrugged and said spitefully, " Why should I care? He wants me to hear something, he can say it himself, " thinking afterwards, " _When he's actually here._ " Miles, being the more polite one, asked, " What is it? " out of curiosity, which Scourge was a bit annoyed by. He only kept it subtle to humor him.

" They've started giving out the flu vaccine now, and your father thinks that while you get yours, you should ask about giving one to Miles if he hasn't had it already. We don't want him getting sick in this house, " the maid explained. The mere mention of it made Miles look terrified. " Ugh, can't argue with that, I guess. Okay, Miles, it's time to see my doctor. If you're gonna be a part of this family, you might as well start going to him, " Scourge said reluctantly.

Miles exclaimed in fear, " What?! " and turned to him looking hurt. Caught off guard by it, Scourge stammered before saying, " What's wrong?! You know it's to help you, right? Do you know what a vaccine is? " There was a silence before Miles nodded unhappily.

Scourge wished that the maid wasn't right there watching him during all the commotion, but was fortunately too stubborn to let that prevent him from being comforting. " Come on, Miles, it's just a really brief prick on the arm that'll keep you from getting too sick. I don't blame ya for being worried, a lot of people don't like needles, not just you. But you're a smart kid, right? " Scourge said to him quietly with his arm around him in a sideways hug. At the end, he threw his compliment back at him, calling him smart when Miles gave him the same compliment. Not only did he do it to genuinely compliment him, but he was hoping this would manipulate him into proving him right about it by doing exactly what he wanted.

" Yeah, " Miles admitted with downcast eyes. " So do the smart thing and get the needle, " Scourge said with a satisfied smirk that Miles couldn't see at the moment. " Okay, Sonic, but you'll have to hold me still, " Miles whispered ashamed of himself. Scourge nodded in response, and with that, they left for the hospital, Scourge of course leading the way.

It felt strange, actually stepping foot inside of a hospital without being kicked out of it for his second tail. Miles had received many injuries in his young life, but the one time he tried to go to the hospital for them, he was told to leave by everyone in the room. It was hard to believe that things had changed so much that suddenly he was allowed to even so much as walk inside of a hospital, let alone take advantage of its services. He tried to ignore all of the strangers he passed by as he followed Scourge through the hospital. At one point, they entered an elevator, something Miles had never experienced before, and he found it strange feeling the floor rising up below him, though he was so used to quickly reaching high altitudes from flying that he didn't mind too much. Things were relatively calm for him, all things considered, until he finally walked into the room where the doctor was.

Fortunately for Miles, the doctor didn't start out with trying to give them needles. Instead, he asked in curiosity, " Oh, is this a new patient? " Miles looked away with his eyes squeezed shut sitting on the wide red chair beside Scourge, immediately revealing his social anxiety to him. Scourge explained looking serious, " His name is Miles. M-Miles Prower. "

The doctor raised his eyebrows a bit and joked lightheartedly, " You mean like, miles per hour? I can see how you took a liking to him! " He wasn't intending to make Miles uncomfortable, but it was clearly not a joke he was appreciating. " _That's a new one,_ " Miles thought. He had almost never been made fun of for the pun on his name before. He supposed the fact that he pointed that out and not his second tail was reassuring, except he might have just been not mentioned his prejudice to keep from angering Scourge for all he knew.

" He's not just my friend, I adopted him! Found him in the woods on an island last week and took him under my wing. He's part of my family now! " Scourge said, trying to reassure Miles by acting cheerful instead of annoyed from the doctor's joke. " Really? You went through the legal process and everything? " the doctor responded. " Screw that! Point is, he lives with me now, and he's like a brother to me. I don't need any fancy papers or anything to make that true. So why don't you give him a check-up first, see if he's alright? " Scourge replied, getting impatient.

The doctor said, " Alright. I'm Dr. Hofstater. It's nice to meet you, " and Miles looked at him in a mixture of confusion, anxiety and suspicion. He seemed to be rather friendly for a stranger. He was a Moebian of the duck race with glasses and a white coat. Could he not see that he was a mutant? " Um, ditto, " he mumbled quietly with his head hung low, and Scourge rolled his eyes.

The doctor proceeded to do the usual check-up routine on him, including the typical reflex test tapping on his knee lightly, checking his temperature by putting a gray thermometer in his ear, and listening to his heartbeat with a stethoscope, all the while with Scourge trying to quietly reassure him through his nervousness and discomfort. " How is he, doc? " Scourge asked casually. " His temperature's fine, but his reflexes are a bit hyperactive as you could see, and his heartbeat's faster than it should be, " the doctor explained. " T-That's just because he's nervous. He's never even seen a doctor before, " Scourge explained, hoping that was the only explanation and his only friend didn't have any kind of heart trouble. " Never? " the doctor said in surprise, concerned about just what kind of life that orphan had in the woods.

" Anyhoo, all that's left is to test your eyesight. It's quick, don't worry about it. Stand on the other side of the room and read out the letters on that chart over there, " the doctor continued quickly. Looking unhappy, embarrassed and confused, Miles took a few seconds before asking him quietly, " How? " There was a silence as they both looked at him in confusion. " How do I, pronounce them? They're not even words, they're just one letter each. How can I possibly know how to pronounce them? " Miles said in confusion, getting the bad feeling that this was one of those things he missed out on learning about that everyone else knew by heart. " _Some genius I am…_ " he thought, for what was far from the first time.

Scourge thought, " _He hasn't heard the alphabet?_ " dumbfounded by what he just learned, and briefly imagined himself awkwardly trying to teach him the alphabet when he would be too embarrassed to sing the alphabet song in front of him. Could he bring him to the window of a kindergarten very briefly just so he could hear it and then leave? Would that be too much for him? Knowing what his ignorance implied and not wanting to be impolite, the doctor instead humored him by saying, " Just say the letters how you think they should logically sound, then. It's to test your vision to see if you're near-sighted. "

Miles sighed unhappily, prepared himself for a long period of embarrassment and reluctantly did what he was urged to do. He soon revealed that, while he could at least read in general, it didn't take long for him to start squinting and finding the letters too blurry to continue. By that point, the doctor decided, " Alright, you're done, then. " Scourge asked in concern, " So does he need glasses? " and got the reply, " Not quite, but his vision is below average. Just not terribly so. He might need some when he's older, though, if it keeps getting worse. "

Scourge asked, " But why? " and started to get worried again as Miles explained, " I've, had a lot of dirt kicked in my eyes and stuff… and sand, and, one time something nasty called, ' pebber spray. ' D-Do you think that might be it? " The doctor had to hold back gasping sharply at hearing that, and so did Scourge, with both of them knowing exactly what he meant to say. After a few seconds, the doctor said in shock, " Pepper spray?... I, suppose so, but again, your vision isn't that terrible. I-It's perfectly servicable. "

" What kind of _monsters_ would do that to a little _kid?_ " Scourge growled under his breath, head down and fist clenched in vengeance, and to his embarrassment, his family doctor turned to face him hearing him show that compassion. Miles was caught between appreciating how he cared about him and being annoyed that he was once again being referred to as a label, only this time it was " little kid " instead of " freak. " Sometimes he worried that it would never end. " I'm not that little, " he muttered defensively with his arms crossed, and while he tried to look annoyed, Scourge and the doctor only saw a pout, which made them smile at how cute he could look. Then the smiles stopped as they realized just how heartless his bullies must have been to hurt someone so young and innocent.

Unfortunately for Miles, just then a nurse walked into the room carrying the next batch of flu vaccines, and he gasped in fear just from seeing them. Remembering what he said, Scourge told him, " Miles, relax! " and let him hug him tightly, returning the hug to hold him still as the nurse gave him the needle quickly. The familiar sensation of a needle pricking into his skin made him briefly yelp, and he started breathing quicker with his pupils shrunken trembling, close enough to Scourge that he could feel his heart beating faster in response. He didn't even notice that Scourge was being given a vaccine as well.

" No, no, no! I don't wanna die! " Miles exclaimed crying, frightened beyond reason as his mind flooded him with the memory of being pinned down by a gang member in the woods and having tranquilizer put in him. He was very lucky he was able to throw him off him with his tails, moving them almost as fast as the speed of sound throwing him into the tree ahead of him, and then rolled over, pushed himself back to his feet, and spun his tails behind him to get sent away in a blast of wind before he could finish him off. But all of the extra exertion only further tired him out, and the increased heart rate he had only spread the tranquilizer faster, and as a red haze blocked his vision, he eventually tripped and started tumbling down a rocky cliff, passing out before he reached the end of it. When he woke up, he was being held captive in a basement washroom, and while all of his injuries had been treated correctly, he would not be treated with kindness.

" Miles, it's okay! It's to prevent you from getting sick, not cause it! What the hell happened to you?... " Scourge tried to reassure him in vain. The kid was hysterical, hugging him for dear life as his only tether to reality, and even then, he was only vaguely aware of him. The doctor told Scourge, " Bring him to the bed, " and with that, he was gently carried to the hospital bed across the room and laid down in it as he fainted from fear, still clutching his chest, with Scourge having no choice but to continue holding him as the nurse awkwardly left the room. Needless to say, he shot the doctor a glare silently warning him to not let word get out about what a soft side he had.

Getting the message, the doctor cleared his throat nervously, before cautiously asking, " Do you think he might have experienced some, trauma in the past? " " Ya think?! " Scourge said in annoyance, before briefly stroking Miles' head to reassure him. The doctor wanted him to get checked for post-traumatic stress disorder, but Scourge didn't look like he would be very willing to cooperate. He might be offended at the very idea, and accuse him of insulting Miles. Even trying to be subtle about it by saying he should get an MRI might just be too uncomfortable for the both of them. He supposed he would have to wait until the off chance Miles got a head injury and he had an excuse.

They both waited for him to wake up, with the doctor being uncomfortable with the wait looking away from them while Scourge tried to take a short nap with Miles, and he would've appreciated holding him a lot more if the doctor would have only left. Miles, however, felt content and at peace as soon as he regained awareness and realized that the person who cared about him the most was holding him in his arms, and he even pretended to still be asleep for a little while to keep experiencing it. Unfortunately for him, Scourge soon noticed the difference in how he was breathing and let go of him, said quietly, " You awake? Come on, let's go, then, " and they were walking out of the room before he knew it.

With the doctor no longer in earshot, Scourge said quietly, " So, Miles, uh… What was that about? " Feeling hurt, Miles asked with his ears drooping a bit, " What? " thinking that he knew about how he was trying to get him to hold him for as long as he could get away with. Scourge, not exactly the most tactful speaker, said unhappily, " You don't remember? The nurse gave you that anti-flu thing, and you _freaked out!_ " Miles instinctively gasped at hearing one of the final words of his sentence.

" What? " Scourge asked, realizing too late that he hadn't chosen his words carefully enough. He stammered afterwards upon noticing his tactless mistake. " I-It's just a figure of speech, Miles, I didn't mean anything by it. I meant that you got all scared, " he quietly clarified to him, and Miles quickly wiped away his tears, hoping it wouldn't be obvious to anyone seeing him later that he had been crying, as silently as he could manage to. " I-I don't wanna talk about it… " he said sadly with his voice cracking, and Scourge soon decided that for now at least, he knew enough. " Why don't I carry ya home, buddy? Run ya there faster, " Scourge said to him, and Miles nodded with a smile.

Scourge was worried about him for the entire time that he was running home, and between all the different places in the city that Miles had been scared at seeing and the outright panic attack that the vaccine had given him, he was determined to do something to make it up to him, because his first two days experiencing the city only made him upset. Remembering what he had said he'd do for him on the first day of their friendship, Scourge looked in the phone book for music teachers that would teach private lessons, and managed to find Miles a violin teacher.

Calling the number, feeling awkward about what he was about to do, he tried to speak casually as he said, " Yeah, I'm lookin' for someone to teach my lil' bro Miles how to play the violin. You interested?... The name's Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm sure ya already know my reputation by this point, and how rich my old man is. Point is, my new partner in crime wants to learn music, and if you're willing to be polite to him, and teach him what he wants, I'll pay you handsomely. " He smirked, planning on intimidating the music teacher into working for free. " Then it's a deal! You'll show up at my mansion for a half an hour every Monday and Wednesday at 4:00 PM, and teach Miles what ya know for as long as he wants. Don't underestimate him 'cause he's a 5-year-old kid. He's way smarter than he looks. You might have a prodigy on your hands, " he said into the phone, and told the teacher where exactly he lived.

Being able to find one would cause him to use the same method months later to find a piano teacher for Miles after he was done with his violin lessons. The two music teachers, one after the other, were polite and intelligent people who were good at their jobs, and as Miles insisted on to repay them for their help, they would indeed be paid, rather than only having to do it to avoid injury like Scourge wanted.

Scourge threateningly warned both music teachers against ever hurting Miles or his feelings too much, saying to the violin teacher on his first day as he brought him to Miles' room, " Do a good job, and be polite to him! I swear, if you so much as slap his wrist, there'll be hell to pay! So be nice to him! Capiche? " The teacher, a tall lynx, nervously nodded as he walked up the stairs with him.

Scourge knocked on the door of the guest room and said, " Hey, Miles! I got a surprise for ya! " in a friendly tone, before whispering to the teacher, " Wait here, " going into the room and saying to Miles happily, " I got ya someone to teach ya the violin, just like I promised! " walking up to his bed. Surprised, Miles turned off his TV with the remote control, stood up from the bed nervously, and Scourge reassured him whispering, " Don't worry, he won't hurt ya. You've got nothing to worry about. "

Miles smiled nervously at the teacher as Scourge left the room, awkwardly trying to hide his second tail behind his first after the teacher noticed it. " Alright, then, I'll be your new teacher, Mr. Ivanstrom. I've heard you have a lot of potential, " the male lynx started saying awkwardly, noticing Miles' social anxiety and feeling pressured to not upset him. The last thing he wanted was to get on Scourge's bad side. " Let's start with the basics. Hold this bow and move it briefly along the parts of the strings I'll point out and I'll tell you what the name of each note is. " Miles said in confusion, " Bow? I thought that was a, projectile shooting weapon. "

Mr. Ivanstrom, wondering if this response was due to his young age and lack of experience with the world, simply stayed polite and explained, " That's a different type of bow. This is what people use to play stringed instruments like the violin. " Miles replied looking a bit embarrassed with his ears down, " Oh, okay, " and followed his instructions, playing each note on the violin one at a time with the teacher listing the letter of the alphabet they were associated with and their pitch relating to each other. This didn't exactly teach Miles the alphabet, as he still didn't know the order all the letters were in, and he instead simply associated the letter names he was being told of with the notes he was hearing.

When all that was done, he was told, " Well done. What I just told you was basically the scale of pitch. An easy way to remember the order of the letters is to remember the sentence, ' Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge. ' You take the first letter of each word in the sentence to get ' E, G, B, D and F, ' " and briefly explained which letter was the lowest note. " W-What's fudge? " Miles asked, embarrassed again of his ignorance. The teacher was stunned at the question, before answering, " I-It's chocolate, basically. You should ask Sonic to let you try it some time, it's really tasty, " before continuing on with the lesson.

" Now obviously, having several notes play close to each other produces a melody you can hear, and there are many different melodies in the world that join into groups called songs. Technically, the word song only refers to music with lyrics in it, with actual words, but the definition can be used in a broader sense as well because ' this music piece ' takes a bit too long to say at times. Why don't you try playing this small song? " Mr. Ivanstrom said, pulling out of his black briefcase some sheet music, consisting of seven notes.

After studying it for a few seconds after which the teacher moved it out of his sight, Miles ended up playing the song perfectly on the first try. Needless to say, the teacher was impressed. He had been expecting Miles to stumble and play the wrong notes, but he memorized all seven notes and played them.

" Splendid! You did it perfectly! How'd you remember so many notes at once for your first ever melody? " he asked, unable to hide his excitement for the unusual-looking child's talent. " Well, I remembered what each, letter, sounded like, and that created the melody I needed in my head, and I just played along with that, " Miles explained nonchalantly, confused that it was even considered a big deal.

The teacher went on to teach him some other slightly longer melodies, including ones traditionally taught by music teachers like " Bah Bah Black Sheep, " and other nursery songs, which Miles had no problem with because he had no way of knowing the context those kids' songs were used in. Sure enough, Miles showed a knack for memorizing the notes of those songs, too. He often played music after hearing it being played by his teacher, and was always able to play it back to him.

He didn't even see anything unusual about it. He heard a note, and it always stuck in his head what it sounded like, how much lower and higher in pitch it was in relation to the other notes, and most importantly where on the violin it was. He was taught about every single note that the violin could play, every single pitch. By the end of the lesson, the teacher, while not even close to done teaching him all of the songs he had planned, was already considering teaching him more about music itself, like the terminology associated with it such as tempo and rhythm.

Miles himself was nervous but polite to each of the teachers, appreciating how they weren't being abusive to him, and despite not liking his second tail, his teachers were nevertheless very impressed with his natural skill and quick learning. Scourge was worried upon the teacher exiting Miles' room for the first time, but cheered up upon seeing the smile on Miles' face and hearing from him in an excited tone, " I've learned so much! This is really cool. Thanks, Sonic! Make sure to pay him a lot, alright?! He's earned it! " revealing to Scourge's unenthusiasm that he had to pay him for his work after all. As Scourge remembered where exactly the money in the mansion was kept, Miles whispered, " He wasn't mean to me once! " to his relief, and then added,

" By the way, we should try some chocolate ' fudge ' some time. Apparently it's really tasty! " As Scourge walked down the hallway leading to the stairs with him, he asked Miles with a smile, " It sure is! How'd you know? " and Miles told him about the pitch scale sentence he was told to remember. " Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge! " Miles said, with a childlike enthusiasm for the topic he was learning about that gave him a smile brighter than it had been in days. He may not have had a fun day before that point, being terrified by a simple vaccine, but Scourge knew now that he had made up for it.

He politely stayed quiet and let Miles ramble on and on about what he had learned as he tried to explain where on the violin each note was without having the violin with him, before being interrupted playfully, " Alright, Mozart, settle down. Music is _your_ passion, not mine, so I doubt I'll remember all that. I'm just glad you're having fun. " Unhappy at being interrupted and potentially being insulted, as well as the revelation that he wouldn't be able to share his new knowledge with his friend, Miles replied, " Mozart? " in confusion, trying to hide how upset he really was.

" Oh, right. It's the name of some famous music-making guy. Lived hundreds of years ago and was great at the piano, so he was pretty popular and well-known, especially back in his time. 'Course, classical music isn't really the big thing anymore. No one's gonna get super famous and praised at being great at it now, but then again, that's a good thing for you, I can't imagine you'd like the attention. " Scourge explained.

After a brief silence, Miles nodded, and admitted, " Yeah. I don't know if I'd be willing to play music in front of anyone if I didn't have to, " and whispered to him to avoid having the teacher overhear, " I don't like the idea that I'm being judged, that there's a lot of pressure on me to get everything right. I still can't believe I managed to do that well in front of him, considering that. "

The teacher walked with Scourge down the stairs as Miles reluctantly followed them to the front door, telling Scourge, " You were completely right! He's able to memorize notes and where they are on the violin and play melodies back to me, and without making any mistakes! I'm already considering giving him more advanced teaching! At that age, he's a musical prodigy! He has a lot of potential. "

Unfortunately, Scourge didn't truly appreciate that potential. Miles' interest in music always just looked like some random hobby to Scourge, who didn't see how it benefited him personally, particularly considering that Miles was too shy to play that music in front of him anyways. He was proud of Miles, but didn't see how it mattered.

Miles would pick up on Scourge's cheerfully dismissive, " it's just a hobby, " attitude towards his interest in music, even if Scourge never actually said it to his face, and this would plant the seeds for a long-standing insecurity about whether his playing music was actually worth anything to begin with. Unlike Tails, whose passion would lead him to building inventions that his friends would take advantage of, Miles' passion for music didn't look like anything useful, just something he did because he liked music, and enjoyed expressing his feelings through it.

Having a music teacher for Miles allowed Scourge to not have to spend every single second of the day with a little kid around him, when he was trying to build a feared reputation in the city by himself. It was already getting out that he had a soft side thanks to Miles, and despite being lonely, the kid's clinginess was still a bit overwhelming for him. Unfortunately, the lessons only lasted a half an hour, and took place close to supper, when he was usually heading home anyways, so ultimately, it didn't give him any time to break the law by himself.

Instead, he just ended up heading home with him a half an hour early from then on, watching TV while leaving Miles alone with a fortunately polite music teacher. Since Miles' room had fairly thick walls, like the rest of the well-built mansion, Scourge couldn't even hear the music he was playing to listen to his progress.


	3. Chapter 3

The third day that Scourge was giving Miles a tour of his city was met with some success for the most part, but there were still a few places that the kid was uneasy about. The day started out strong, though, with Scourge taking him to the book store, where there were lots of educational books, including ones on the weather and music, the topics Miles was most interested in. After looking around the store, Miles said in amazement,

" There's so many books here I'd love to read! But I can't just ask for all of them at once. There's only so much we can carry home, and I don't wanna make you spend too much money all in one day… " That last sentence made it clear that he wanted him to pay for the books, and that he wanted the two of them to be able to revisit that place a lot because of all the books he wanted to read. As a result, Scourge decided that he would need to use his stolen money to pay for the books rather than just taking them like he planned. He would later have to make this decision with the very next place they would visit.

When they visited the CD store afterwards, he soon learned that it might be a good place to go looking for Christmas gifts for the fox, considering how much he took a liking to what it was offering. " Here's the CD store! " Scourge said to him. " What's a CD? " Miles asked him, and felt a little embarrassed at seeing the store owner out of the corner of his eye give him a funny look. " It's something you put in a CD player to hear music! " Scourge answered with a knowing smile, and just like he expected, Miles was amazed as soon as it dawned on him just how much music could be listened to in that one store.

" Wow… There's _so many_ of them! Would I ever be able to have time to listen to them all? " Miles said happily. " Why not when you're having your tea? I'll find ya a CD player and then you'll be able to hear all the music ya want! What 'dya like? " Scourge said with a confident smile, proud of himself for knowing him so well and being so excellent at making him happy.

Looking confused, Miles said, " Uh, I dunno. Music with emotions I can relate to? With lots of passion, something that's not boring. I-I barely ever got to hear music, and when I did, it's not like there was anyone there telling me what type of music it was… " Scourge said, " Hmm… Got it, " with an understanding smile and a wink, easily figuring out the type of rock music he would like the most.

When they were heading to the general store, Miles cheerfully decided to fly to take a shortcut to the store and jokingly switch things up by making it so he'd be the one holding the door open for once. Unfortunately, pushing on the door didn't cause it to open. Getting frustrated and with increasing desperation, he tried pushing on it as hard as he could, and after a couple seconds of trying to open the door before someone could run up to him, he started to panic, his heart beating faster as the familiar feeling of failing to open a door led to another painful memory.

" No, no, please! Open! Please! " he started saying quietly, trembling, and when he heard wind roaring behind him and a blue and black blur run up to beside him, he jumped and yelped, " NO! " startled and turned around terrified, backing up against the door ready to make an escape.

" Miles? Relax! " Scourge said with his previous playful joy turning into concern. A few seconds passed as Miles recognized who he was and calmed himself down, sighing at the end in relief as his friend's familiar scent, voice, body shape and blue color made him snap out of his panic. " What's wrong? " Scourge asked with concern, narrowly stopping himself from adding now to the end of the sentence and coming off as unsympathetic to his fear out of exasperation with it. Sometimes he hated having to regularly rethink over sentences just for him, and wished he could just speak his mind without thinking more often.

" I can't open the door, " Miles admitted with downcast eyes feeling pathetic, ashamed at realizing upon saying the words how he panicked over something that was no big deal at all. He continued, " I just wanted to switch things up, hold it open for _you_ for once, as a joke, but it didn't open. I wanted it to _open…_ and you were running up to me so fast… "

Scourge looked at him with sympathy briefly, wondering how many times Miles had to deal with being unable to open a door and being cornered by bullies because of it. Trying to reassure him, Scourge right away smiled and said, " It's a pull door, " and pulled it open with a grin. Miles giggled nervously scratching the back of his own neck, and said, " Oh, okay. I wish it said that on the door. " As he walked into the store alongside him, Scourge replied cheerfully, " Good point, that would be more convenient, " and they started walking down the aisle of the general store to the left of them.

Pretty soon, Scourge and Miles were running through the store, and at some point, they stopped at a part of it that Miles found unusually cold. Scourge exclaimed happily, " The dessert aisle! There's some ice cream here! " and after taking a chocolate ice cream container out of the refridgeration area, he noticed Miles unhappily zipping up his leather jacket. " It's too cold in here, " Miles complained, looking sad and melancholic. Scourge looked at him in sympathy for a little bit, and thought back to the day he had met Miles, when he was telling him at his ship's restaurant how hard it had been for him to survive the winter.

Ruffling his hair, he reassured him, " It's to keep the ice cream cold, so it won't get all melty. We won't be here long, " and the two of them ran out of the cold part of the store immediately. Eventually, they left the store entirely, with Scourge not even paying for the ice cream. As Miles ran alongside him, he was about to point that out in confusion, only for it to dawn on him that he did it on purpose and think, " _Oh, right. It's just some general store. He probably doesn't care too much about whether they want him in there,_ " and shrug it off.

He had gotten so used to having to take his food from people's fridges that Scourge stealing food from a small-time general store didn't even faze him. He didn't understand why it was even wrong, and Scourge was in no hurry to tell him. All he did was say, " Jackpot! " upon getting the ice cream, and bring it home in a brief trip as Miles wondered what that word even meant, and refrained from asking and looking like an idiot.

Soon, they returned to the city, and one of the places Scourge brought Miles to get him familiar with it was the beach. They were standing on a hill overlooking it from above, out of sight of everyone there. " Pretty cool, huh? It's one of the most popular beaches in the state! " Scourge said with a smile. He looked at a squirrel-race Moebian girl his age in a bikini, and he added, " Lots of hot chicks, too! " Miles looked at him in confusion after looking around the beach again, and said, " Chicks? " not understanding what he meant.

" You know, the girls! " Scourge said cheerfully ruffling his hair at his cute naivety. " Uh, oh, okay. But if they're hot, why don't they just go _inside_ where there's _air conditioning?_ Is the beach really that fun that people will overheat themselves for it? Doesn't seem like there's much to do in it, there's just sand everywhere, " Miles replied, still confused.

Scourge was surprised for a second before saying in amusement, " Hot as in, ' good-looking, ' Tails little buddy. Just _look_ at 'em! " and wolf-whistled before putting one arm around Miles' back moving his other arm in front of him from left to right, encouraging him to take in the sights. Instead of appreciating it, though, Miles looked sad, and soon said with a depressed tone and downcast eyes, " Good- _looking?..._ So you find that pretty important after all, huh… "

Confused, and a bit annoyed, Scourge sighed in annoyance at him spoiling his fun and said to him mildly annoyed at first, " What's the big deal? I just appreciate how they look nice. I-I mean they work _hard_ on looking good, some of them! G-Gotta appreciate the effort! What's to be sad about? " being nervous trying to humor him at the end. There was a brief silence before Miles clarified melancholically,

" I just don't see how that matters… but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Everyone only cares about looks. Why would you be the exception? I-I bet if any of these girls didn't fit society's arbitrary standards on what a _normal_ person should look like, you'd hate her, _too…_ " His voice cracked at the end, and as he continued through his final sentence, his two tails moved in front of him, and he held them in his hands tightly, staring at them with a mixture of heartwrenching sadness and a scrutinizing glare. " _Oh, man…_ " Scourge thought sadly, realizing just how deep that issue went with the child.

Worrying that it could cause problems for their friendship if Miles started thinking about him like that and comparing him to bullies, Scourge placed his hand on Miles' shoulder and reassured him, " It isn't like that. It's okay. C-Come on, so what if you have one more tail? I think it's cool! Hell, I'm gonna go as far to say that I think _every_ fox should have an extra tail! " Surprised, Miles looked at him letting go of his tails and letting them return to being behind him, and said to him, " Really?!... It would've been nice… not being the odd one out… " looking depressed at the end, but not nearly as much as before.

" You can swim, right? " Scourge asked to distract him from his previous train of thought, remmebering how Miles had fallen into the ocean in front of him on their first meeting and was lucky he got thrown back on shore by the waves. The last thing he wanted was his only friend drowning on him. It was bad enough the previous two days out in the city were a disaster.

" Yeah, I taught myself how. Had to observe other people do it from afar, but when I figured it out from practice in a shallow pond in the woods, it saved my life a lot. Can't fly under the water, though, the water's weight slows my tails down too much, " Miles explained, feeling embarrassed and self-conscious of how much unnecessary information he gave him afterwards. He thought, " _I talk too much…_ "

Scourge said in his usual carefree way, " Well, why don't 'cha try swimming here? It's what a beach is _for,_ after all! " and smiled confidently, until he realized that Miles wasn't very happy at seeing all of the different people that were on the beach and in its water. " Hold on, kiddo, " he said comfortingly patting his shoulder.

He quickly ran in a circle around the beach in a blue and black blur, using his super speed to kick around the sand everywhere and create a miniature sand tornado scaring everyone on the beach away. Seeing that there were still people in the water, he shouted, " Shark! " and since a shark movie had been released recently, they were on edge about it enough to immediately assume he was telling the truth and get out of the water, leaving the beach in a panic.

The lifeguard soon went up to him, saying angrily, " Hey, what do you think you're doing? " Scourge smirked and created a sand tornado from running around the large muscular walrus with shades, completely unintimidated by him, and finished it off by homing-attacking him multiple times in a row. " Okay, okay, stop! What do you want?! " he replied in a panic, and Scourge demanded standing on top of his chest,

" To have this beach all to myself, me and Miles! " which cued Miles to reluctantly run up to him after some hesitation and force a menacing look on his face to hide his fear. The lifeguard groaned and reluctantly nodded as he sat up, and Scourge said encouragingly to his brother, " Come on, Miles, the water's great! "

Miles took off his leather jacket and got into the water at first, but seeing Scourge there near him made him really nervous, and he was promptly ashamed of once again being triggered by something that seemed on the surface to be very minor. Noticing Miles looking away from him nervously as he swam at the water's surface near the beach, Scourge asked, " What's the matter, Miles? Do you not like water? You're swimming great! "

Miles knew it was completely irrational to worry that Scourge would ever even consider trying to push him under the water and hold him under there, when he wasn't like the bullies he had to deal with on his island, but there was still that fear, that overwhelming anxiety that automatically showed up every time he could face that risk. He still couldn't stop imagining the worst case scenario, and repeatedly considering the paranoid idea that Scourge might do that on a whim just for fun, just to see what it was like and give him a scare.

" I-I can swim just fine… but I don't like it, " Miles finally admitted, trying to hide how afraid he was just from having someone near him in the water at all. He didn't think him being on the other side of the beach would make it any better, and in fact, the loneliness would make it even worse. The whole appeal of being out of the house was spending time with his only friend, and he wouldn't feel like he was if Scourge wasn't close to him, able to protect him quickly in an emergency.

Scourge was a bit frustrated that he had wasted his time scaring everyone off the beach, and failed at giving him a fun place to hang out outside of the house, but tried to hide his annoyance for Miles' sake and humored him. " Okay, alright, we'll leave. I was getting bored of this place anyways, " he said, and Miles immediately swam out of the water and started rushing up the beach without looking where he was going.

This caused him to suddenly fall forwards onto the sand with a yelp, having tripped on something left behind by the people Scourge scared away. Panicked, he exclaimed, " NO! " and struggled to get up as fast as possible from the strangely bumpy sand below him, thrashing his tails around wildly behind him as if to try and defend himself in his vulnerable state.

" Miles, relax! " Scourge said to him once again at seeing him panic, and thought as he approached him from the front, " _Damn it, that's gonna become my catch-phrase at this rate…_ " Hearing his actual name stunned Miles for a moment, and he slowly snapped out of his instinctive panic at seeing the familiar sight of a blue hedgehog go up to him.

" Huh? W-What'd I trip on?! " Miles asked in a bit of a daze, regaining his focus on the present. Wondering just what kind of memory had been triggered in him and soon deciding that he didn't need to know, Scourge forced a smile and reassured him, " A sand castle, that's all. Luckily there was no one around to see this, " promptly remembered that the lifeguard was watching them the whole time, and was thankful that Miles didn't remember that and correct him.

" Need a hand? " he said to him helpfully having his hand outstretched, still with a smile that masked concern, and Miles hesitated instinctively for a moment before happily taking his hand and allowing him to help him back to his feet. Scourge looked over at the lifeguard on his tall chair watching the commotion and shot him an annoyed glare, hoping in vain that it would warn him not to tell other people about his soft side. He wondered just how many people were talking about how they saw him interact with the two-tailed little kid and spreading rumors chronicling all of Miles' freak-outs, characterizing Scourge as a softie at heart, and his best friend Miles as a coward.

" Well, these things seem annoying, " Miles complained bitterly about the sand castle, trying to blame it for his recent panic attack and feel a bit better about himself. He went to standing at his side, looking over the sand castle with irritation.

Scourge started out encouraging him, " They can be fun to build, " only to realize that this was the perfect opportunity to encourage him to be more aggressive, and continued as if he meant to all along, " but they're even _more_ fun to _destroy!_ " Miles shielded his eyes instinctively as Scourge kicked the side of the sand castle once, not wanting to get sand in his eyes and embarrass himself with being triggered yet again in front of him. He wondered just how weak Scourge thought he was.

" Come on, Miles, get your revenge! Kick it down! " Scourge happily encouraged him, snapping him out of his insecure train of thought. " Oh, right, " he said, and closed his eyes before furiously kicking the sand castle as much and as hard as he could until nothing remained of it, letting out stress and expressing anger that he usually wasn't able to at all. At the end of it, he sighed a bit exhausted, panting for a brief few seconds at how much energy he exerted taking his anger out on a mere sand castle. A part of him felt pathetic for wanting to do that. He wished there were more worthy targets for him.

" Felt good, didn't it? " Scourge encouraged with a hand on his shoudler, and Miles nodded in response. " Yeah, it was… good to be able to express my irritation with an _action_ for once… felt less, well, powerless… " he admitted quietly in between breaths, a little ashamed and depressed. Soon, his eyes looked down at the front of his body, and he started dusting himself off depressed at how he was covered with sand. " Great, " Miles muttered, and grumbled under his breath, " it's like I'm a dirty homeless kid all _over_ again, " not understanding that Scourge could hear him and looked concerned once again.

" You should have a bath when you get home. Why don't 'cha wash up for a second in the ocean there and do the rest later? " Scourge advised him quietly, being a responsible older brother to him. Miles nodded, despite the fact that washing the dirt or sand stains out of his fur in an ocean instead of a bath or shower reminded him even more of when he was homeless. Scourge stared at the sight with a sad look on his face, thinking, " _Oh, Miles… What am I gonna do with you?_ " hoping that he wouldn't always be like that.

When Miles finished getting most of the sand out of his fur, he put his leather jacket back on, thankful that it hadn't blown away in the wind or something, and followed Scourge as he showed him around the rest of the city. For the most part, it went by fine, with Scourge casually explaining what the stores and whatnot were pointing them out to Miles and then running to the next area ahead, but after an hour, he ran into one of the last few areas in the city that Miles didn't like. " And there's the _orphanage…_ " Scourge said casually at first, only to slow down speaking and get uncomfortable while saying the final word, remembering something he learned about Miles.

The kid had mentioned to him earlier that his orphanage burned down, and sure enough, looking at the one in front of him wasn't doing him any favors. He had an expression of dread on his face, and what Scourge couldn't recognize was that it was partially mixed with guilt. He blamed himself for what happened to it and the people in it, and felt like he should go into the next one and just stay there, suffering like he did before, because it was entitled of him to ever question the status quo of his old life.

" D-Does it look like your old one? " Scourge whispered to him, rubbing his shoulder as he had him in a sideways hug again. " Yeah, kind of… same yellow look… " Miles said quietly, looking horrified at it. Trying to be a good friend while also encouraging him to be more like him and supposedly " loosen up " as he thought of it as, Scourge said eagerly, " Why don't we spray paint it to make it look different? " Miles looked at him surprised asking, " Spray, paint? We can do that? " He tried to hide his anxiety, knowing that the only reason he knew what paint was, was because someone threw a paintbrush at him and he had to get the paint out of his fur afterwards. He hated the way it smelled, and hoped that sprayable paint wasn't like that.

Scourge said with an excited chuckle, " Haven't you ever seen graffiti before? " Confused and baffled, Miles replied, " What's, ger-feet-ee? " having never actually heard the term before. Having to hold back another chuckle from just how innocent and cute Miles just sounded, Scourge answered happily, " Street art, on the walls and stuff. Come on, it'll be fun! Very satisfying and, it'll make ya feel powerful! Like you have the power to change how things look and they can't catch up to ya after doing it! "

Miles stared down at his hands as he twiddled his thumbs nervously thinking it over. He had a feeling that making graffiti would be a thing that would provoke people that Scourge wanted him to do. The consequences of not doing it, getting his only friend to disapprove of him as a spoil-sport, felt much worse than the potential consequences of spray-painting a building, which his super speed would very easily allow him to avoid. As long as no one saw him do it, how would anyone know it was from him? Even if they did, no one would be brave enough to call the police on someone as fast and feared as Scourge, or at least Miles hoped they wouldn't.

So after a few seconds, the heavy peer pressure combined with Scourge's reasoning made Miles agree, " Alright, " and Scourge replied, " Yes! " fist-pumped briefly much to Miles' confusion at having never seen that gesture before, and said, " I am _so_ proud of you! Well, I was before, but now I'm even _more_ proud. Come on, I know where to get some of that paint. "

Miles' first time spray-painting was fairly anxiety-inducing, as he hoped no one would see him, was certain that if they did, they'd stare at him and thus notice his second tail, making him the center of attention, and of course he feared consequences from the police as well, super speed or not. After all, they could still ask around town where he was and find him later, perhaps even in Scourge's house where he was usually safe hiding from the world. But Scourge's encouraging and reassuring words every so often, as well as the lack of any people moving down that particular part of the inner city, reassured Miles and got him at least relatively comfortable with continuing the task.

Trying to feel better about being forced to do it by making a picture he actually wanted to make, his first ever spray-paint " art, " was a large running mosaic of thunderclouds with detailed lightning coming out of them, pouring torrential rain down at a field full of bears and bats being struck by the lightning above them. Of course, it looked crude, since this was the only time he had ever even come close to drawing anything and he was new to using spray-paint – Scourge even had to teach him which way to make the can face so he wouldn't spray it in his eyes – but he at least used all the right colors of paint doing so, using his tails to fly up to the higher parts of the orphanage to spray it.

His art was completely upstaging Scourge's mere spray-painting dirty words and whatnot in the most uncreative display of graffiti imaginable, and he was fortunate that Scourge didn't care. If anything, he was just proud of him for trying to enjoy it.

Deep down, he didn't feel like he was making art, like he did when he played the violin. He didn't feel like he was making " street art " by spray-painting an orphanage's walls. He was just taking his anger at his old orphanage out on an unrelated one and falling victim to peer pressure like a weak-minded fool. But at the very least, the fact that he wasn't angry in the slightest while doing so helped him at least try to delude himself into thinking it was a normal and healthy activity. And when his conscience warned him that the owners and workers of the orphanage wouldn't appreciate his efforts, his personal hatred of orphanage workers only made him proud of what he was doing for standing up to bullies, and with that, he finally started to enjoy it.

When he was done, Scourge pulled him into a sideways hug once again, and as the two of them looked up at the front of the orphanage fully painted like a thunderstorm mosaic, he said, " I'm so proud of you. See, _this_ is how you loosen up! Reading and playing music is alright, but stuff like _this_ , is how you show society that _you're_ in charge! "

With that, he ruffled his hair, and instinctively gave a quick kiss on the forehead to the little brother he never had, not even realizing he hadn't done it before as he turned around saying casually, " Love ya, little bro. Now let's get some lunch! " Appreciating the display of affection in complete bliss, Miles sighed with a smile, and took a second to notice Scourge was running away before gasping and running after him. They left the spray-painting materials behind, and since they were wearing gloves, they left behind no evidence of who did the deed.

The next restaurant they went to was the Moebian equivalent of McDonalds. Just as before, Scourge cut in line with Miles and got their orders first, which included nuggets, fries, and for Miles, a salad. The entire time they were in the store, Miles had to contend with hearing people quietly whisper about him and express disapproval of looking at his unique genetic feature. He tried his best to hide how sad he was because of it, having a serious expression and his arms crossed as he waited for his meal.

Soon, they were out of the store, but to Miles, it couldn't have happened soon enough. Scourge, of course, wasn't able to see his reaction to the whispering in the store because he was too busy looking ahead at the people working behind the counter. Fortunately for him not flipping out, he didn't hear what people were saying about his little brother because since his life didn't make him deal with such insults, he hadn't gotten good at pinpointing that kind of talk in the middle of random restaurant chatter.

They sat down with their lunch in front of the right wall of the building. " Enjoying your salad? " Scourge asked playfully, still not used to the idea of someone liking vegetables at all. Miles nodded, still lost in thought. " Come on, you gotta at least try a McNugget once in your life. You've been missing out! " he said with a forced smile at the end. " Okay, " Miles said reluctantly, taking one of his chicken nuggets and eating it.

After he was finished, he said politely, " It's good, " not too impressed. " Want more? " Scourge asked. " No thanks, " Miles replied, clearly preferring his salad. Scourge rolled his eyes, thinking, " _Worth a shot. Then again, I guess I can't expect a not normal kid to have normal eating behavior…_ "

Suddenly, a buzzing sound was heard causing Miles to jump up from his spot on the grass gasping in panic, and Scourge immediately became alert and asked, " What's wrong?! " It was a bee. The kid clearly had experience with being stung by them, as he exclaimed backing away from it, " No, not again! Run! " and ran away from it in a yellow blur. Thankful that he at least showed he was in touch with reality by speaking directly to him, Scourge quickly got up and caught up with Miles before the kid could panic at being separated from him.

He had hidden himself in a group of bushes in the forest to the right of the fast food restaurant parking lot. " Good thing you didn't go far. I think we lost it, " Scourge said with a chuckle, trying to still be lighthearted and cheer the scared kid up. " Yeah, " Miles replied, forcing a smile. " Damn bees. This is why I hate summer, " he added bitterly, and Scourge was once again surprised and amused at him imitating his characteristic cursing at such a young age. Fortunately, Miles had instinctively kept his salad with him as he had ran away from the threat, so he was able to resume eating it rather easily.

" So how are you enjoyin' your day so far? You getting used to the people of the city yet? Likin' your new home? " Scourge asked him, continuing to eat the rest of his lunch. " I don't know. They still insult me, Sonic. They still call me names… " Miles replied sadly. " Like what? " Scourge asked with a serious expression. " The words, ' abomination, unnatural, abnormal, and mutant come to mind, " Miles answered bitterly, forcing an irritated expression on his face to hide the oncoming sadness. Needless to say, Scourge was far from happy at hearing that, and a desire for some kind of payback was only held back by the knowledge that they'd never stop, and that he could think of his regular mischief as that revenge later.

Looking depressed with downcast eyes, Miles continued, " The people of my island… they didn't just call me a mutant, they called me a demon, a monster… blaming me for all the bad weather the place had gotten! T-They said that because the spike in thunderstorms started when my parents left me there, I had the island cursed! They blamed me for _everything!_ It's not fair! As if I _like_ constantly dealing with the rain! " Scourge was struck speechless. At the same time, he did notice that the weather of his city had become more cloudy and rainy than it used to be, and that only started when he brought him home. But would thinking of those accusations as true make him no better than the people who made them?

Miles couldn't possibly have been intentionally causing thunderstorms as a baby, for years on end, so either the island inhabitants were wrong, or he could cause them subconsciously. If the latter was true, then he was far more powerful than he could've ever imagined. But Scourge immediately dismissed that as too good to be true. The fact that his best friend was a genius who could keep up with him and fly was amazing enough.

He became distracted from that train of thought when he heard a sniffle beside him, and almost immediately after that heartbreaking sound, it started to rain, as the clouds started increasing in size unnaturally rapidly above him and covering the sky. Thankfully, the rain was more of a drizzle at the moment, not enough to make him want to rush inside right away. " I-I love ya, little bro, " Scourge said to him quietly with a sad expression of pity, hoping that would be comforting enough to remind him that his present life had been a lot better than his past. Miles, who was wiping away his tears frantically with one hand and finishing the last of his salad with the other, smiled a little bit, and said, " Thanks, Sonic. I love you, too… "

Scourge smiled, while still being a little embarrassed and self-conscious of saying that, and while the rain continued to happen, it seemed to be completely caught in the leaves of the trees surrounding them during the rest of their time eating, keeping them from getting wet, and a thought crossed his mind and passed by that maybe, just maybe, Miles was directing the rain away from him.

" _But that's ridiculous… You think he'd know he can do something like control the freaking weather by now, if he's been accused of it so much. Why wouldn't he at least try it out to see if they're right? I would!... But then again, I'm not him…_ " Scourge thought, only not doing more to comfort Miles as he silently cried due to the fact that his hands were too full of nuggets and fries to hug him. The minute they were free, he did exactly that, and the rain completely stopped as the sun began to shine through shrinking clouds.

As they ran through the city after they had finished lunch, Miles felt alarmed and gasped at hearing police sirens from a car driving around the corner behind him, and was immediately reminded of when he was back on that island when that familiar sound warned him of the people most dedicated to gunning him down. At least the teenaged gang members and random civilians had an incentive to keep him alive in the form of having someone to torment, but the police outright wanted him dead immediately for the " good of the island. " The mere fact that he had been told there were people of that occupation nearby him sent him into a panic, and he strained himself to move as fast as he thought he could, breathing rapidly with his heart pounding, the sky above him darkening as a thunderstorm started.

Scourge heard his rapid breathing and said to him while continuing to run ahead, " Miles, relax! That police car is way behind us and isn't even going the right way. And no one even knows it was us. The orphanage is all the way on the other side of the town, we'll be fine… " Miles whimpered, still following behind him instinctively even in his panicked state, and Scourge sighed heavily. " You know what? Maybe we should go home before we get too drenched in this rain. You've had a long day, " he said reluctantly, changing his course to heading home. Miles quietly replied, " Thank you, " and followed him home, hoping he'd never run into the owner of that police car.

The more time he spent running while scared out of his wits, the more absorbed in his memories he became, to the point where by the time he got back to Scourge's house, he was barely able to speak from being choked up and in tears. He flew over the gate in front of the mansion and rushed over to his room as Scourge had to stop and speak into the voice recognizer to catch up with him.

Knowing full well how upset the police sirens had made Miles, he ran into the kid's room as soon as he could get in his house. Seeing him crying into his pillow, he closed the door behind him and sat down beside him in his bed, stroking his head and back to reassure him. " It'll be okay… " he whispered to him, trying to force a smile.

If he was to have Miles break the law with him to join in on his fun, the kid was going to have to deal with the police a lot, and he was starting to get the depressing feeling that Miles wouldn't ever be truly happy with participating. While Scourge was an infamous juvenile delinquent who found it thrilling and empowering breaking the law and getting off scot free, Miles only became a nervous wreck at it from fearing the consequences. He wasn't a natural born risk-taker like him, he only broke the law because he thought he had to. Miles wasn't like him, and he might never be.

But none of that mattered. Miles was the only person who cared about him at all, the only person to tell him that he loved him. He was his only friend. " _Beggers can't be choosers, I guess…_ " Scourge thought. Out of sheer stubbornness, he was determined to keep trying to get Miles to get used to his criminal life, thinking that giving up breaking the law just to humor him would make his life unbearably boring with nothing thrilling enough to fill the void. It wasn't like he could be a superhero or anything.

Stroking his head and back, Scourge thought as Miles cried under his sheets, " _I love this kid to pieces, no matter what he's like. I'm not giving up on him. That past of his made him so restrained and afraid, he freaks out at even hearing police sirens at all, but if I can get him to loosen up, to be more like me, maybe he'll be happier finally. Maybe I can change him…_ "

Trying to distract Miles, he said desperately, " Come on, kiddo, cheer up!... H-How about a game of tag? " There was a silence as Miles looked at him confused, or at least tried to through the tears obscuring his vision.

Scourge awkwardly clarified, " You know, you chase me, and then I chase you! " " NO! No chasing! _Please!_ " Miles impulsively exclaimed hiding under the blankets. He immediately felt even more ashamed, as the rational part of his mind knew that Scourge would never hurt him like his bullies did, but he impulsively acted like he would anyways. " Oh… Alright… " Scourge replied unhappily, understanding why he reacted that way.

He sighed, and realized that the only way he'd be able to make him feel better would be to give him a hug. It was a bit difficult since Miles was lying down in bed, but he managed to do it, and he could tell that Miles was calming down just from realizing what was going on. The sound of the rain outside seemed to change from a torrential downpour to a light drizzle, and while he couldn't see outside because Miles always kept the dark curtains on his window closed, the increasing amount of sunlight coming in from the curtains lit up the room regardless as the clouds in the sky became less dark than before.

" Why don't we take a nap for a while? Then I'll show you the last of the city, like the arcade where there's lots of fun games to play! And all for free! " Scourge said to him comfortingly, smirking at the end knowing just what he was going to do. Miles nodded, and sighed happily as he hugged his older brother figure as closely as he could get away with. As usual, Scourge felt a little self-conscious of just how nice he was being at the moment, but if it made his only friend feel better, it was worth it.

After resting for a few hours, Miles and Scourge finally got out of bed, with Miles being reluctant to do so, and the two of them left the house and ran to the city arcade at nearly the speed of sound. By this point, the weather was relatively sunny out, although still having puddles around from the rain that happened earlier, and Miles found them annoying, both because he could briefly see his reflection in them, and because they splashed him with their water when Scourge ran over them on the sidewalks. He avoided voicing those complaints in front of Scourge, thinking he'd only frustrate him because he wouldn't be able to avoid splashing him, and because he already thought he had too many triggers to begin with.

" Well, here it is! The most fun place in the whole city! " Scourge said happily as he ran up to the arcade and stopped in front of it. Miles smiled nervously as the two of them walked into the arcade together putting their sunglasses over their eyes and saw all of the different people in the building. The arcade was a bit dark in the lighting, which wasn't good news for Miles, who already had his dark sunglasses over his eyes and didn't have the best vision in the dark even without them, but he kept them over his eyes anyways, wanting to look menacing for the sake of it.

The sheer amount of people in the arcade made him anxious, but he tried to hide it with an annoyed judgmental expression, and tried to look cool by leaning his foot against the wall with his arms crossed, imitating Scourge's rebel relaxation pose. Deep down, seeing all of the children, teenagers, and young adults in front of the various arcade machines made him a nervous wreck. But he hoped that Scourge's presence alone would protect him.

Scourge ran through the entirety of the arcade at sonic speed in a blue and black blur throwing everyone on the floor, immediately getting everyone's attention, and cleared his throat before shouting smugly, " I'm _back!_ You know what to do, bozos, hand 'em over! " with his hands in front of his mouth standing on top of one of the toppled over teenagers. After that, everyone started emptying their pockets of their arcade money and giving them all to him, and Miles helped him carry the various coins accumulated from his efforts.

" Now get outta here, all of ya! " Scourge demanded, an order that surprised everyone in the room but was immediately followed. Miles backed away from the people running out of the arcade, his back firmly against the wall. The only person who remained in the arcade was the intimidated owner of it, who they would have to awkwardly ignore. When all of the customers were gone, Miles sighed in relief, and Scourge returned to giving him the familiar reassuring smile that he always had. " Now lemme introduce ya to every game in the arcade! You've been missing out! " he said, less cheerful by the second sentence.

The first one he brought Miles to play was the famous Pac-Man. " You just put this coin in the thing, and then you move this lever around to move the cursor and your character, and press the button on it to do other stuff. That's how all arcade machines work, " Scourge explained casually to the confused genius beside him, feeling a bit sorry for how much he missed out on while appreciating how it made him feel smart. " What is this show called? " he asked, relating the screen on the machine to a television. " Not show, _video game._ That's what these all are. They're like shows, but interactive, you can control a character in them, " Scourge explained with a chuckle. " Cool, " Miles replied.

As Miles progressed past the game's title screen and started the game, he had to hold back from asking what he meant by cursor and character, as he didn't want to sound completely ignorant. It took him a second to realize the character he was supposed to be controlling was actually the yellow ball that appeared on the center of the screen, and even then, every so often he'd get confused and think he was controlling one of the various ghosts on the screen instead, not that he knew they were supposed to be ghosts to begin with. The primitive 8-bit graphics fascinated him, like he was looking at an entirely new world made of abstract concepts. Scourge generally stayed quiet and let him enjoy the arcade games he played as he himself played the one beside Miles, and waited for him to ask questions instead.

The games in the arcade included Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Pole Position, Pole Position II, Rolling Thunder, Rally-X, Dragon Spirit, Sky Kid, Xevious, Mappy, Pac-Mania and Galaga '88, and Miles enjoyed them all, more than any of the law-breaking he did, not that he'd tell Scourge that extra tid-bit. Ms. Pac-Man was basically the same thing as the previous game, which was a bit disappointing, and made him assume all video games were like Pac-Man, until Scourge casually explained,

" Oh, that's basically an expanded update of the game you played before, it plays the same way as the other one. Except you can hold down a button to go faster. " Miles appreciated that new information, and didn't seem to mind that he was playing as a technically female " Ms. " Pac-Man that time around, but the game only held his attention for one more level because he was so interested in playing the other ones with different gameplay.

He liked Pac Mania more, the game being a 3D isometric version of Pac-Man with the same basic gameplay but a more interesting looking graphical style to it, but he was eager to get to the other different-playing games. While he enjoyed making Pac-Man eat the ghosts, he could only do that after making him move into the big dots and then hoping he'd get close enough to a ghost in the first place, and most of the time, he had to nervously avoid the seemingly random movements of the ghosts, which made them feel like a constant annoyance.

Galaga, Galaxian, and Galaga '88 involved pressing a button and moving left and right to shoot down various enemies that moved around, which gave Miles a feeling of anxiety and tension mixed with the calm satisfaction of eliminating all the things threatening him. It ultimately wasn't worth the anxiety, but he did find the concept of eliminating threats rather satisfying for an arcade game, at least. It helped that they weren't real, so he didn't have to worry about feeling guilty and proving the people who demonized him right.

Dig Dug confused him a bit at first, and Scourge had to explain to him, " You have to press the button over and over to get rid of your enemies, " which sounded tedious, but was at least satisfying as he watched his character make the various enemies on the screen pop. He heard sound effects that seemed to create a nice melody any time his character moved, and that made him want to move around as much as possible to keep hearing it. It was fascinating to him.

Dig Dug didn't hold the evil genius' attention for long either, even if he did appreciate being able to experience it on principle. Pole Position and Pole Position II were racing games, and they had an off-puttingly different control scheme from the other arcade machines, featuring a steering wheel and a gear shifter for low and high gears – whatever that even meant – and an acceleration pedal. " How do you use this one? " Miles asked unhappily.

" Oh, uh, you sit down here, you turn this wheel to move the car left and right on the screen, you put your foot down on this pedal thing to move it forwards, and the gear shifter is there to make you go faster, " Scourge explained to him. He wasn't used to explaining video games of all things, when he was very obviously much more interested in having a reputation as a law-breaker and thrill-seeker, but for his only friend, it was worth it. " These two machines are racing games! The first of their kind, actually, " he commented.

Once Scourge explained the controls to Miles, he seemed to get the hang of it, despite clearly preferring the much simpler controls from the previous machines. They were games where Miles would control a race car and complete a time trial lap within a certain amount of time to qualify for a race against seven other CPU-controlled cars. One of the challenges of the game was to avoid going off the road because that would send the car crashing into the billboards. Scourge noticed glancing at Miles' screen that he seemed to be a safe driver at heart, not really being into racing to go as fast as possible. He stayed on the right side of the road at all times, and found the other cars annoying, not appreciating the challenge of a race. He only tried out the second Pole Position game just because, although like with all the other games, he was still happy he was able to experience them at all.

Rolling Thunder was a side-scrolling action game where the character would use various firearms to attack enemies, something Scourge could see that Miles clearly didn't feel comfortable with and was only able to deal with because of the 8-bit sprites making it hard to tell. At the very least, he loved defeating the enemies regardless, and commented at one point about the game,

" So I go in doors and move through high and low areas eliminating threats, with stuff that look like, _guns._ I really like being able to attack my enemies from a distance, at least, rather than getting right up close to one and hoping he won't hurt me. My character falls over in like two hits, so there's that too. Wish I had a way to attack from a distance in real life. I don't see why the character has to use, well, _guns,_ though! Isn't there _any_ other way? "

Scourge looked at him with sympathy and pity in his eyes at hearing that, not failing to understand the implications. He wished he could get him projectile weapons that weren't firearms that he'd refuse to even look at. " There's the bow and arrow, I guess, but no one's used those in hundreds of years, so imagine trying to find them, " Scourge replied awkwardly, choosing not to bring up the touchy subject with trying to convince him that using firearms might help him not fear them. " That's a good way to deal with animals in the woods. Can you get a bow and arrow for me? " Miles asked in confusion.

" Never mind. No one makes 'em anymore, and besides, it's better to attack head-on. Sure it sounds scary, but getting into the habit of that will make you braver than sticking back and attacking from afar… I could always compromise and get you a long stick to attack with, at least. We'll go in the woods to get a new ' staff ' for ya, how 'bout that? " Scourge replied. " Sure! Sounds good to me, " Miles said happily, unconsciously imitating Scourge's way of speaking.

It didn't take him long at all to move onto Rally-X, a driving game set in an overhead, scrolling maze where the goal was to collect flags shown on a radar before the red cars did. While the game itself was pretty simple and harmless, aside from the fuel system, the thing Miles liked the most about it was that it had actual background music. " I've never heard music like this before. What instrument is this? " he asked.

" Instrument? Uh, I dunno. It's 8-bit music, it comes from some sound chip I heard. T-That's what I heard some nerds saying here, anyways. It's trying to imitate actual instruments, " Scourge explained, caught off guard by the random-seeming question. A kid playing a video game and the thing he was most interested in was the music? " _Maybe he really is a musical prodigy. Shame that can't do anything for me, though,_ " Scourge thought.

Miles, still focused on the game, asked innocently, " What does ' nerds ' mean? " Scourge was briefly surprised, before explaining awkwardly, " Well, uh, it means… Smart people. Like you. You're a music nerd! And they were game nerds. I'm not one at all. I'm a badass lawbreaker, a thrill-seeker! Y-You can be one, too, if you try hard enough. " He was about to explain the insult behind the word, but upon remembering how upset Miles got about how he talked about pretty girls, he realized Miles would just get upset at him labeling people again. Miles simply replied, " Thanks! " secretly wondering why Scourge would be so quick to deny that he was a nerd if all it meant was a compliment towards his intelligence.

" This game is kinda fun. Don't see what the worth of meaningless flags is, though, it's not like they're food or anything like the yellow circle ate, " Miles added. Scourge said, " Well, uh, they're very valuable flags, and the driver is sellin' 'em to the black market for a lotta money! Then he can buy all the food he could ever want! " proud of how he was able to think of that so quickly. " I wish I could buy stuff... " Miles replied sounding depressed, not even caring that he accidentally sent the car he was controlling into a rock.

" No one ever lets me buy anything. They take _one_ look at my mutation, and take my money without letting me have what I asked for! How can they expect me to not steal from them and then turn around and kick me out of their stores when I try to pay them?! It's just, ugh… they deserved to be stolen from… " the four-year-old fox continued with a tone that alternated between bitterness and sadness.

Feeling sorry for him, Scourge was faced once again with the fact that his only friend wanted to be a law-abiding citizen deep down, and only broke the law because he felt forced to. He probably would've been a lot happier if instead of his best friend stealing ice cream earlier, he let him pay for it himself so he could actually buy something for the first time in his life. But that might only encourage him to obey the law, and while Scourge was certain he'd still be just as emotionally attached to Miles, he still didn't want him to become a regular law follower if he could help it. From his perspective, that would just be making him restrained as usual rather than showing him that he had the freedom to break the law and get away with it because of him, letting it finally sink in that he was free from the restrictions of his past.

Dragon Spirit was a vertically scrolling shooter arcade game where the plot involved a villainous dragon that captured Princess Alicia. No, not that one – and Anti-Sally didn't even go by that name back then – but Miles would end up looking back on it as a strange coincidence. Miles controlled a dragon that could drop bombs on enemies on the ground, shoot fire breath through the air, and unlike in Galaga, move in 8 directions, which was mind-blowing to him. The powerups that gave the dragon extra heads gave him double or triple the firepower, but they also seemed to decrease the amount of hits he could take from enemy fire, and in the later stages, the fire ended up being intensely difficult to avoid. As a result, Miles, being someone who didn't like anxiety and challenge very much, would end up preferring the simpler to control and understand Galaga despite the much less impressive graphics.

Sky Kid, which had by far the most memorable music out of all of the arcade games, was a horizontally scrolling shooter arcade game involving controlling biplanes through inhospitable terrain and bombing targets like ships. It was the first one Miles experienced to have multiple buttons instead of one, and the B button caused the plane to loop around, which he found pointless and even endangering at times. Needless to say, he didn't exactly discover a love for biplanes with the game like Tails would have. Still, he loved the music, and the satisfaction of eliminating various enemies without consequences like guilt.

Xevious was a vertically scrolling shooter with 8-directional movement and bomb-dropping like Dragon Spirit, but without the appealing interesting concept of controlling a dragon. As a result, while he liked defeating enemies in it, it didn't hold his attention for very long, especially since most of the games in the arcade already let him do that.

Mappy was a side-scrolling platform game with a mouse character that opened doors to get various household items like radios from six different elevations of platforms, using trampolines that would break upon being used a fourth time, and avoiding cat enemies in the process. Technically, the mouse character was a policeman according to the story, but to Miles, with the primitive graphics, it just looked like a mouse dressed in blue for some reason, and with the graphics of the game and arcade simplicity, he could easily believe it was about stealing household items rather than finding stolen goods to return them.

However, Scourge's passive annoyance at how he was playing the game soon discouraged him from continuing with it. When Miles finally noticed the art on the side of the arcade machine, he realized why. Neither of them liked policemen very much, but for two completely different reasons. Miles could at least respect the concept of someone upholding the law for the good of the people, he just didn't trust that someone not to abuse their power and hurt innocents regardless.

" So that's the last one, " Scourge said walking towards the exit of the arcade, smiling despite the dissatisfaction with the game Miles ended with. " So from what I gather, video games are about letting you eliminate enemies in a world free of consequences. Well, if you get hit enough, you have to repeat stuff you already did, but that's still better than what happens in real life. I wish real life was that simple… " Miles commented, as they left the arcade.

" Yeah, but in a game, nothing really matters. You don't have the satisfaction of building up a reputation getting yourself respect and making people do what you want. It's not fulfilling, " Scourge casually replied, only to have an oh crap moment at realizing that the final word of his sentence had opened a whole can of worms he didn't want to for Miles.

" Fulfilling… My reputation has never been anything I'm proud of. Is that the only thing you can feel fulfilled at? Is that the only thing real life offers? " Miles asked, hoping the doubt in his mind about it was correct. " N-No, of course not! There's also getting new skills and learnin' stuff so you can be capable of more. Getting stronger, accomplishing stuff! And hanging out with your friends, being cared about and making them happy, " Scourge replied hurriedly with a nervous smile.

" Friends… I see what you mean, " Miles said, sounding more at peace at hearing that. It was clear that he was getting his sense of fulfillment in life from being a good friend and being cared about, not from seeking thrills and building a feared reputation, but Scourge supposed he could at least appreciate how it meant it would encourage Miles to be as good a friend as possible to him, if he felt like that was his only purpose in life.

" That's not all there can be to life. You'll be almost just as feared a criminal as I am some day, I promise you, and then nobody will be gutsy enough to mess with you ever again! That's somethin' to be proud of getting, " Scourge explained to him.

It soon dawned on Miles that Scourge was trying to not-so-subtly guide him to living the way he wanted him to, just like how Scourge's father tried to pressure him to stop breaking the law and be a productive and responsible person, on the rare occasions he actually talked to him. Scourge, despite being closer to his age, was essentially raising him, just like his father at least in theory raised him. If there was anyone that he was supposed to be asking for advice, then, it was him, and since he was full of doubt and uncertainty, he realized it might be best for him to do that a lot.

He asked Scourge timidly twiddling his thumbs and looking down, " Bro, um, you know how you're the one raising me right? And, um, usually people who do that give valuable life advice on how to live life. W-What would you give me, for, uh, life advice? " Scourge looked at him surprised at first at what he was asking him, grinned in amusement commenting, " Never been asked that before, " and then after a brief moment of consideration, he smirked confidently while saying eagerly, " Live life to the fullest! "

Miles asked Scourge in youthful ignorance, " Uh, fullest? " not understanding what he meant. When he thought, " full, " he thought of how much water was in a water bottle, and wasn't sure how that could apply to life. Scourge lightheartedly teased him, " You know! " finding his ignorance cute. He chuckled and ruffled his hair before elaborating, " Enjoy life! It's as simple as that. Do what you want, and don't let anybody get in your way! If it makes ya happy, then do it! "

Miles looked stunned at hearing that advice. It wasn't that he was surprised that his thrill-seeking criminal friend was so hedonistic, it was more that he had no idea how to follow that advice to begin with. The only thing he could think of that he could do to make himself happy, and thus follow that advice, was to be a good friend and be cared about in return. Was that enough to make up for the depressing reality of how most of the people he passed by insulted him? Was that alone enough to make his life qualify as fulfilling and worthwhile despite him spending it breaking the law like a selfish nuisance? Was that enough to distract him from the violence and neglect he suffered in his past that he remembered every time he went to sleep at night?

" _But in a game, nothing really matters,_ " he remembered Scourge saying, and wondered if it applied to his life, too. He determined that at the very least, he would focus on being as loyal and caring a friend as possible, because that was the only thing that gave his life purpose. He was Scourge's best friend. Without that identity, he was back to being just an ugly mutant.

" N-Now come on, little bro, next up, the playground! " Scourge said nervously with a forced smile, noticing how depressed and worried Miles looked at what he thought would be inspiring advice. This got Miles' attention, and the two of them ran through the city on their way to the playground in it. As Miles expected by this point, his brother ran in a tornado around it scaring everyone away so the two of them could enjoy it in peace.

Unfortunately, the playground wasn't exactly that interesting, especially compared to the fascinating and satisfying arcade machines he got to enjoy just before that point. There were just a few slides, including one that turned around, and there were monkey bars which Miles could easily fly up to, and all of the equipment was in sand, something he had learned to despise. Still, he deeply appreciated how Scourge was nice enough to make it so that he had it all to himself, and tried to enjoy it for what it was.

He mostly used the slides, though, as pushing the swing a little and seeing it go back towards him made him too nervous of the consequences of the swing hitting a person to even consider asking Scourge to push him in it. Besides, he couldn't imagine it being fun to just push someone on a swing over and over. He wanted Scourge to enjoy himself, too, and he wouldn't be able to enjoy his time there knowing Scourge wasn't happy.

After nearly a half an hour, they left the playground to return home, as it was getting close to dinner, and they preferred not to miss enjoying the dinner the servants at their mansion made for the house. After finishing a delicious meal of mashed potatoes, broccoli and steak, with Scourge giving him all of his broccoli, Miles was given some more ice cream with chocolate sauce as dessert, and while he didn't like ice cream headaches, it was at least tasty enough to be a nice treat as usual. The first thing they did after breakfast the next morning was go to a forest to find a long branch for a staff for Miles, giving him a weapon at last. He wouldn't be able to spindash while holding it, but it didn't seem to matter to him.

Scourge taught Miles a lot of common knowledge that he missed out on from not going to school, having proper social experience, or even watching the right TV shows. He felt like the wiser one compared to his naïve and inexperienced friend, and that only made their age difference feel more obvious, as despite being the one who wasn't the genius of the duo, Scourge was still the older and wiser one. He tended to read words on signs and whatnot out loud to subtly teach Miles how they were pronounced, and he would often have to correct Miles when he struggled to pronounce certain words, usually words that had two vowels right beside each other in them, and he had to resist chuckling at how cute he thought it was, even if it was from a tragic lack of education. It was strangely satisfying, casually correcting his mispronunciations and teaching him everything he knew. He felt like a parent.


	4. Chapter 4

Scourge not only wanted to get Miles comfortable with the city – which was what the tour of it was for – but he wanted to get Miles to start feeling like he was finally overcoming his past by getting revenge on the people of the world. He wanted him to join in on his favorite past-time, of course, but he also wanted him to feel like he had a safe outlet for his stress, and finally fully register that the tables had turned and now he was the one on top. But convincing him to take it all out on random people on the streets was a lot harder than he thought it was going to be. He thought that reminding him of how mean people were to him in the past would be all it would take to rile him up enough, but all it did was make him sad.

He didn't want to have to miss out on the thrills and satisfaction of winning fights because he'd have to worry about Miles being targeted while he was busy, and attacked because he was unwilling to attack first, and at the very least, telling him about that concern was enough to get him to understand. He had been practicing attacks on nothing but unmoving scarecrows set up in his backyard, and he needed to apply that to the real thing to learn how to win a fight, to get the first hit on people who would inevitably hurt him so that he would be able to win. It was all in the interest of getting him stronger.

But he still showed hesitation. Scourge couldn't even get him to agree to knock down a random man on the street and demand his wallet, one of the most petty crimes in his opinion. Needless to say, he found that embarrassing, as Miles had awkwardly went over to the man only to run back into the alley frightened of him, and Scourge felt the need to show him how to do it right. He knocked the man down with a homing-attack and said standing on his chest, " You, bozo! You got any cash on you or what?! "

The man was a Moebian of the jackal race, and he yelped at what happened saying, " Sonic the Hedgehog! Don't hurt me! Take my money! " letting Scourge take the paper bills out of his wallet looking uncharacteristically annoyed rather than smirking during the experience. This was something the man didn't fail to notice, and Scourge in his bad mood had to specifically tell him, " What'dya doin' standin' here?! Get lost! " to get him to leave. All the while, Miles stared at the sight uncomfortable, hoping he wouldn't be seen himself.

Scourge put the money in his leather jacket pocket as he left, and didn't look directly at Miles at first as he tried to make a compromise with him. Normally, Miles was loyal enough to do literally whatever he wanted, so running into that level of hesitation from him was frustrating, to say the least, and he took deep breaths in and out, trying his best to not get him upset by losing his temper. Miles could tell how he was feeling, and wished that it could only be some other way.

" Alright, looks like we gotta start small. What people do you think in this city deserve to suffer the most? " he asked Miles, trying and failing to hide his exasperation with him. " Mean people, " the kid answered unhappily, not understanding what he meant by the figure of speech. Scourge replied, " Well, that man you chickened out of mugging was mean just like your bullies, and that didn't help motivate you, so clearly you want some different targets. "

Miles, feeling pressured to give him an answer, said, " I-I think the people should do something to really get it coming first. And if what you said about city folk was true, then just waiting for someone willing to insult me to my face means we'll be waiting forever. So if they're too afraid to provoke us, maybe we need to look for the people that aren't necessarily being mean to _us,_ but to _other_ people. Not that I care what bullies do to other bullies, I'm just saying I'd feel a lot better if I knew for an absolute fact that our target was an awful person who had it coming. " Scourge, getting an idea, asked him still feeling a bit frustrated with him, " You mean like a criminal or something? "

Seeing the annoyed look in his eyes, Miles said nervously, " Not you! Someone else! A criminal who isn't nice to me, who wouldn't give me a chance. Those are the people that deserve to suffer the most, but you've proven that you're the exception. You're not like those people! You're a good person when it counts… " Scourge looked at him stunned and conflicted once again, and then looked to the left and right of him hoping nobody heard that.

" That's a compliment. What I mean is, well, I had a lot of bad experiences with teenagers wearing black jackets. I heard them calling each other a gang sometimes, and they were the people aside from the cops who were the most willing to hunt me down and, beat me! I-It got to the point where the people of the island would hire them to look for me and supply them with weapons, and whatever they asked for, they got… " Miles was full of sadness and dread by the third sentence, getting increasingly more scared just at talking about it, and had to take a deep breath to calm himself down, remembering what Scourge advised him to do. Getting angry, he continued with a passionate desire for justice against his oppressors,

" Those are the kind of people I hate! Those are the people that should pay! The ones who love to hurt people to the point where they jump at the opportunity to do it to me! A-At least when I wasn't already in the process of taking stuff from their homes, the rest of the island dwellers didn't actively hunt me down. The worst they did was _insult_ me when I was too far away from their frying pans and other weapons. So while the regular law-following people were certainly awful, they were the best of the worst. They're not who I want to hurt. I-I mean, they're not the people I want to _focus_ on right now! The regular people of the world are just as discriminatory as criminals, but at least _they're_ _subtle._ I wanna prove to them that I'm not to be messed with, just like you said, but maybe the best way to start with that is to find the worst of this city and make an example out of them. "

Scourge nodded, realizing that Miles' desire to be a vigilante could be the only thing that would get him to do what he wanted. It would be much easier of a transition getting Miles to fight criminals with him than regular civilians who hadn't done anything to him. As a result, the general target of Scourge's law-breaking soon switched to the random criminals he found in the inner city and alleys. That wasn't to say he stopped causing trouble to regular people, cutting in line and forcing people out of arcades for Miles' sake, but if he were to get Miles used to starting fights and breaking the law with him, it would be a lot easier getting him to start if he felt justified in it. He'd be able to make up excuses for fighting regular people later, just like his big brother did. But for the first year of their friendship, Miles only targeted criminals.

So he spent a lot of his daily runs through the city with Scourge doing just that, fighting criminals in alleys, taking full advantage of the sheer force at which he attacked with his super speed and how Scourge was always right there by his side. The only thing Miles really complained about when it came to that, was the smell of the dumpsters and trash cans that were often in the alleys that they had to run through looking for criminals, and fortunately, Scourge didn't figure out exactly why he complained.

On the fifth day that Miles ran through the city with Scourge, Miles gasped startled when they heard a gunfire sound in one of the alleys. Scourge immediately ran into it at sonic speed and homing-attacked the one with the gun in a blue blur, knocking him down with a thud, and fortunately for the already traumatized Miles, the gunfire had purely happened because the mugger had fired a shot into the air to scare the civilian he was robbing. As soon as Scourge knocked him down, Miles rushed in and slammed the mugger with his staff repeatedly, shouting angrily to him, " Take this, you _bully!_ "

Kicking the mugger's dropped gun far away from him, Scourge could tell from Miles' shrunken pupils and trembling that he was still terrified from the sound of the gunfire, despite his vicious attacking and angry expression hiding it, and even if that hadn't been a clear enough sign, his use of the word bully gave it away. The civilian they rescued from the mugging stared at the sight in a mixture of anxiety, confusion, and appreciation, and quickly decided to run away while he still had his money, not trusting Scourge to not rob him himself after he was done showing his dominance over the mugger.

When they had attacked him enough that he seemed unwilling to get back up, but was still very much conscious and terrified, Scourge said smugly, " Send a message to all the other scum like you. There's only one lawbreaker worth anything around these parts and it's me! I'll be takin' your money, thank you, " taking his wallet out of his jacket. Miles added bitterly, " I think that'll be the best punishment, considering _you_ were about to do the same thing! " and then smiled, feeling like a hero for what he had done to the robber.

After the two of them ran at almost the speed of sound out of the alley and stopped at the city park, Scourge said happily, " You did great, Miles! I'm so proud of you! " ruffled his hair and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead again much to his delight. Scourge exclaimed in excitement, " I didn't even have to do anything to make ya join in! You just came in swinging that staff of yours and being a badass! And what you said to him, actually talking to our target? Perfect! You're really getting the hang of this. We're gonna make the best duo ever! "

Miles giggled happily at that, and gladly ran after him as they continued their run through the city. While hearing gunfire again was terrifying for him, the sheer pride he felt in taking down a mugger right before he could commit the crime made him feel so great, that it was as if nearly all of his reservations against fighting criminals with Scourge were pointless. It was that moment that taught him that he was doing the right thing. It was satisfying getting all of that pent-up aggression out on someone he knew for a fact deserved it, instead of bottling it all up out of fear while feeling increasingly helpless and unhappy. He would still rather just stand there and let Scourge be the one cutting in line and taking money from more innocent-looking people, but for criminals, he was happy to be the one giving them what they deserved with Scourge.

While he would never stop being intimidated by strangers and being on edge from being in large crowds, Miles was able to get used to running through the city with Scourge, and with him stealing and winning fights with criminals all over the city, Miles quickly gained a reputation as not only a two-tailed fox, but as Scourge the Hedgehog's most loyal and threatening associate, out for revenge against a world that persecuted him for his second tail. Civilians still looked at him in confusion and surprise at him having a second tail, but as long as he was with Scourge, they were too intimidated to harass him.

A month of spending every day with Miles allowed Scourge to learn a lot about him from observing even the most obscure of quirks about his behavior. He noticed that the kid never liked to have his back to anyone, possibly out of the anxiety that they'd yank his tails if he did that. Whenever he did have to have his back to someone, like after cutting in line with him, he always moved his tails to almost in front of his body to prevent the person behind him from grabbing them. It was an instinctive response that Scourge eventually started noticing as he wondered why he was doing it and acting nervous for no good reason.

Getting more comfortable around Miles caused Scourge to be more reckless, forgetting how sensitive Miles really was, and that led to more instances where he would get him frustrated or upset. Interrupting Miles got him depressed and quiet at believing that talking was pointless, the kid was becoming increasingly more likely to get annoyed at being called kiddo and treated differently for being young, and one time, Scourge playfully pinched him to get him to stop being absorbed in a past memory and get his attention, only to startle him severely as a result. For the most part, though, he was just as friendly and considerate to him as he was before, and his insensitivity wasn't anything he didn't show trying to lightheartedly tease and poke fun at him when they first knew each other.

On the way to the first alley they'd run through, over a month after they met, Miles gasped at hearing the sound of a car engine backfiring and was thrown into a panic. The memory of the last time he had heard gunfire on his island came back so clear that it was as if he could actually hear the voice of the person who had fired it right across from him. " _Freak! Hold still!_ " he heard in his panicked mind, and as a result, while he was already running to keep up with Scourge on the sidewalk, the fear of getting shot caused him to immediately want to hide.

As soon as they found the alley, Miles ran ahead of Scourge and hid himself in the dumpster, much to Scourge's shock and confusion. He had heard the sound as well, but he had hoped that it sounded too different from gunfire for him to panic, or that it had been long enough that he would stop reacting so severely to what he started calling his reminders. " Miles, it's okay! Come on, get outta there, it must stink! " he said opening the dumpster, trying to ignore the frightened gasp from Miles at him doing so.

Hearing that he was being called by his actual name stunned him back into the present for the most part, and despite his trembling, he forced a sheepish smile as he flew out of the dumpster and back onto the cement floor of the alley. Humiliated, he said quietly, " Thanks. I hate it in there… I just wanted a safe place to hide. " His head was hung low, and his eyes were downcast and miserable. Feeling terrible for him, and thankful that no one seemed to be around to witness the scene, Scourge asked him, " Were these what you usually had to hide in? "

Starting out depressed and becoming more passionately angry, Miles explained, " No, my island had so little people, it only had _one_ of these big things, and I got thrown inside of it for trying to drink from the park fountain! Occasionally I'd hide in trash cans and be able to avoid getting hurt, but most of the time they either had too much stuff in them to fit me, or I'd get attacked and thrown into them instead, and then the contents of them would be dumped on me by those stupid teenagers! I hate those things!... Even the food in them is terrible. Just made me sick. "

Scourge knew he shouldn't be surprised anymore whenever he was given new information about how Miles had been treated in the past, but for some reason, he still had enough compassion in him for the child to still be horrified and stunned every time he heard about it. It just didn't seem fair that Miles was treated like that consistently his whole life, without even a single person feeling sorry for him enough to start helping him. " You'd think they would've gotten used to the second tail… " he muttered facing the wall to the left of him with his fist clenched.

Miles heard him, and continued to feel just as melancholic as before, saying, " No one will ever be used to it. " Scourge immediately replied, " I am. I love it! Used to it is an understatement. Don't listen to those jealous idiots, you're gifted, Miles. You're special! " and put his arm around him to hold him close. " Thanks, " Miles said with a small smile, thinking, " _But that's only you… Everyone else knows I'm just a freak._ "

Seeing that Miles was still depressed, Scourge tried to cheer him up some more. " Hey, you know, there's a photographer at the mall today! How's about I bring ya there to celebrate a month of our friendship? " he said cheerfully, with his smile a bit forced from pity. " Sure, okay, " Miles replied reluctantly, not knowing what a photographer was but not feeling like making himself sound like an idiot again by asking. With that, the two of them started running through the streets to the mall.

When they got there, Miles gasped at seeing a flash of light come from the small black box the photographer was holding in front of a couple. Scourge, misinterpreting the source of his anxiety, said to the photographer while giving him his stolen money, " Don't use the flash on it for us, " with an annoyed expression. Noticing Miles hadn't followed him up to the photographer yet, he reassured him, " It's okay, it's fine. You won't see that flash of light anymore. Now come here! Let's get a family photo! "

Miles nervously smiled until the final sentence, where he was caught between being really happy and excited and being nervous again at his picture being taken. Not wanting him to waste his money, Miles went up to Scourge obediently, and his nervous expression became a more happy one when Scourge ruffled his hair and put his arm around him holding him close to his side. The photographer told them to, " Say cheese! " and since Scourge did it, Miles followed suit despite not understanding why he should.

" There you go, " the photographer said giving them the resulting photograph, which had them in the same poses as before smiling happily, even if Miles was clearly trying to hide one of his tails behind his back. With that, Scourge handed it to Miles saying, " Here ya go, a picture of us for posterity! You can keep it in your pocket and treasure it! " Miles very quickly did just that, putting the picture in his leather jacket pocket and zipping the pocket up trying to avoid looking at the picture of himself. Scourge looked concerned at his reaction, wondering if his hatred of seeing himself ran deep enough to ruin photographs for him.

Trying to distract him, Miles cheerfully pointed out, " Posterity, huh? " Scourge, also wanting to lighten things up, replied, " Yep, I learned it from you! I keep tellin' ya, you're getting a better vocabulary every day thanks to that dictionary I found ya. And you're making _me_ smarter because of it! Keep it up! " and gave him a thumbs up. Walking away from the photographer with him, Miles found it amusing and charming that Scourge, a wannabe gangster and proud criminal, was so proud of using big words just for the sake of it, and wondered if it showed that he really did respect him. At the same time, though, hearing that humbled him once again, as he admitted sheepishly,

" Well, I don't always remember every word I read about. I didn't even know what a photographer was until you brought me to that guy. Although that worked out for us, I would've irrationally said no otherwise. " Looking worried, Scourge said, " Don't tell me you've had bad experiences with photographers too! " Miles replied unhappily, " Okay. " " I didn't mean literally! " Scourge said in annoyance, which only made Miles feel worse.

Trying to pretend he wasn't offended, Miles reluctantly explained, " People on my island tried to take pictures of me to humiliate me, and worst of all, to spread the word of what I looked like so nobody would make the mistake of helping me, even if they didn't live on the island. They told me why they were doing it before doing it, so it's no wonder I don't like getting my picture taken. "

Scourge wished there was something he could to make him completely get over that fear, and all of his irrational fears, but all he could do was compassionately rub his shoulder and say, " Well, that's all over now, " despite knowing Miles' mind wouldn't register that as true. After that, they quickly resumed their run through the city, showing dominance over the various criminals around.

Another month passed, and on their way to their first alley of the day a morning after a storm, Scourge ran across a puddle on the sidewalk once again, but this time, the splash of water his shoes created reached high up enough to splash in Miles' eyes behind him. Most of the time, Miles was able to avoid such a scenario by wearing sunglasses and running beside Scourge rather than behind him, but this time, he wasn't so lucky, and the water in his eyes immediately made him close them out of an inability to see ahead of him. Not wanting to blindly run into anything, like the back of Scourge's spines, or a car, he stopped in his tracks to rub his eyes frantically in an instinctive reaction, forgetting that he was trying to keep up with someone.

Fortunately, Scourge quickly noticed a lack of the sound of footsteps behind him and asked the question, " You okay, Miles? " wondering if he had started flying behind him. Getting no answer caused him to immediately run back at the speed of sound to where he last heard Miles, where he saw him drying his eyes with his gloves. Jumping to the conclusion that he was crying and wondering what could've possibly caused it this time, he hugged him, getting his attention immediately.

" Thank you… I-I'm not crying, Sonic. A puddle splashed water in my eyes, and I couldn't see for a little bit. It's dangerous to run blind, " Miles said sadly after reluctantly letting go of him when the hug ended. " Do you have a lot of experience with that? I mean, you can't always stop running just because a puddle splashed ya, and it was pretty rainy back on your island, " Scourge asked unhappily.

" Sometimes it was a puddle, sometimes it was sand, sometimes it was, my own tears… " Miles replied, whispering the last few words full of shame and disrespect for himself. There was a brief silence as Scourge let it all sink in, before Miles continued sadly,

" It always sucked getting something in my eyes, especially when I was running! I had to constantly do zig zags and run in unpredictable routes to try to throw people off my trail, and in a forest full of trees for me to run into and tree trunks to trip on and bushes to get caught in, that was hard enough on its own even with being able to see. Sure, I could leave them all in the dust at first, but they'd never stop chasing me, they'd call up people in the direction I was headed warning them to be ready for me, and I would get tired eventually and need to hide… I'm sorry I brought up such a depressing topic again. I promised myself I'd stop talking about the past. You already know enough. "

Once again, Scourge could do nothing but reassure him. " It's okay now, little bro. You'll never have to set foot on that island again, " to briefly cheer him up for the time being. " Come on, let's go to the arcade, have some fun! " he added happily to his delight. " Sure! You know, Sonic, the very concept of a video game never ceases to amaze me. Being able to interact with a colorful fictional world in a way that's satisfying, with music and visuals nothing like that of the real world, it's perfect escapism! "

Scourge commented as they started walking to the arcade, " You wouldn't like modern games, then. They like to have realistic graphics that look dark and gritty, all black and brown. Oh, by graphics, I mean the way they look. " Wanting to not look ignorant, Miles nodded despite not knowing what he meant by modern games, as from his perspective, since arcade machines still existed in the present time, arcade games were modern to him.

" Really ought to thank the arcade's owner for building all of those amazing machines, " Miles commented cheerfully. Scourge chuckled at the end of it finding his wrong assumption cute, and said, " You think he programmed all those games himself? Nah, he just gets them from someone who did. I can't imagine he'd have the time, let alone the ability when all he's capable of doing is taking money from behind a counter all day. "

Miles looked embarrassed and sheepishly replied, " Oh. Should've known, " with nervous body language. Scourge playfully teased him, " What, did ya think that was the case for _all_ stores, that every little tiny thing in a store was personally crafted by the store owner himself and all of the fruits and veggies were grown and harvested by him, and every little fish was personally fished up by the store owner himself? " There was a brief silence before Miles admitted, " Maybe… " having not thought about it all the way through.

Scourge chuckled and exclaimed, " Aw, that's adorable! " and ruffled his hair, saying lovingly, " Love ya, little bro. Never change. " Miles laughed nervously, torn between being blissfully appreciative of being loved and feeling frustration at the condescending treatment. He couldn't help being inexperienced.

Needless to say, Scourge ever since they first went in there had made it a monthly routine to go to the arcade that Miles liked so much, viewing it as the one fun part of the city. They would've gone every day, but Miles to Scourge's annoyance was opposed to that, explaining, " W-Well, the people going to the arcade can only have so much money, so what if they get to a point where they won't be able to show up there for you to take their money anymore? What if they give up and stop showing up there entirely because we show up too much? What if the arcade's owner stops getting people showing up entirely and gives up on the arcade? That's also why we shouldn't be too predictable and consistent, because if they learn to predict when we're going to show up, then we're gonna end up going there to an empty arcade with no coins for us to use. So we can't go there every day and expect it to always work out. It's just impractical. "

Scourge had no choice but to reluctantly nod in agreement, understanding that Miles had a very strong point, even if he was ultimately just telling him he couldn't do too much stealing or there would be consequences for him, just like his parents used to nag him.

After leaving the arcade together, they ran through the city for a while until the sight and smell of a burning building stopped them in their tracks. In front of them was a house on fire, and there were various firemen using hoses to put out the flames. Seeing the familiar sight made Miles stare at it with an expression of dread and horror, and the clouds just above the house started to increase in size rapidly and darken within the span of a couple seconds before pouring torrential rains onto the flames, as if in an effort to put them out. Of course, everyone noticed how unusual this was, having torrential downpours concentrated into such a tiny area, but Miles being in the city for so long had at least gotten people to accept it as a regular occurrence, if a strange one with no real explanation.

Seeing that Miles was trembling uncontrollably with his pupils shrunken at the sight and smell of the burning house, and one he had no real attachment to at that, Scourge sighed unhappily. He wanted to just grab his hand and pull him behind him as he ran away from the house with him, but that might only get him even more panicked at being pulled by someone so suddenly. He asked one of the fireman awkwardly, " S-So, why's it on fire? " The fireman looked at him surprised, knowing how uncharacteristic someone of his reputation was acting, and quickly answered as he continuing spraying the hose, " Lightning strike. "

Unfortunately, this was the worst possible response he could give for Miles, and the fact that he was a fireman looking in his general direction didn't help, as he started to irrationally fear that he would blame him for it and turn his hose on him. He exclaimed hysterically, " Lightning?! NO! Don't look at me! I-I didn't want this to happen, it's awful! PLEASE! " and impulsively started running away in a yellow blur, certain that the fireman's next action would be to try to drown him with his hose. All Scourge could do in response was run after him and eventually catch up with him, incredibly concerned and worried about him, while at the same time, he was frustrated that the scene he caused gave the people of the city even more reason to call Miles a coward.

Catching up to him and saying, " Miles, relax, " in a reassuring tone mixed with panic only gave him a startled jolt, and he impulsively turned to the right into the thankfully empty city park and continued running away, saying, " No, no! Everyone's gonna blame me for this! Everyone's gonna try to kill me again! We gotta move, we gotta change towns! "

Seeing that he had no other choice, Scourge scooped him up into his arms carrying him as he ran beside him and shushed him as he slowed to a halt with him, trying his best to get him back to his senses. Miles was surprised and caught off guard by that bold action, but being caressed reassuringly helped to calm him down to merely whimpering as he was being carefully sat down on the park grass and hugged.

Scourge explained to him with a smile as Miles returned the hug, " Relax, everything will be fine… Remember, Miles, you live with me, and _no one's_ gonna cross me, and considering my father has an insane amount of power over the world, no one's gonna force him to move either. Hell, even if people do blame you, that'll just _add_ to your _menacing_ factor and make people less likely to wanna mess with ya, especially since you're with me… Things are different in the city, Miles. In your small town, everybody knew each other, so everyone was willing to work together against you, but in the city, everyone's a stranger. They're not gonna all rise up in an angry mob with people they don't even trust… And even if they do, I'll just run around 'em in a circle and catch 'em all in a tornado to humiliate 'em. With my super speed, I'm basically _invincible_ compared to those slowpokes! So don't worry, Miles. We'll be just fine… "

After hearing a familiar sniffle, he realized Miles had started crying, and the kid said sadly, " It isn't just people hurting me that I'm worried about... I've always been blamed for lightning strikes, and they only started happening in a huge quantity in one area when I was born, when I was brought to the island, so what if people are right? What if that lightning strike only happened because of me? I didn't wanna be responsible for some random person's house getting burned down! But I couldn't keep it from happening. What if the same thing happens to our house?! Just like with the orphanage! It got struck when I was still living in it and I was barely able to escape! There were people in there and… "

It was hard to argue with Miles' reasoning, and Scourge couldn't help but be worried at hearing it, but ultimately, it was his job to comfort him, not tell him he was right all the time. Scourge reassured him successfully, " Well, that orphanage was full of people who hated ya. Now that you live with me, maybe that lightning won't wanna bother me because you like me so much. How about that? And besides, maybe the lightning that hit that house you saw, was going to happen _anyways_ even if you _weren't_ in this city. I know you didn't want that to happen. So if you really aren't the type to like setting things on fire – n-not that _I've_ ever done it – then I can't imagine you telling lightning to do that, even subconsciously. Assuming that ridiculous superstition that you can control it by accident is even true! Those backwoods islanders might have just brainwashed you into believing it. I don't see how having a second tail would give you the ability to control the weather. It'd be cool as hell, but let's not get our hopes up. "

Miles smiled a little at hearing him say the word subconsciously, always finding it charming when a criminal like him used a big word like that for the sake of it, and feeling like he might be a positive influence on him in intelligence alone. Of course, when Scourge said he never set anything on fire, he was lying through his teeth, but Miles by that point blindly trusted him enough to believe him. After all, he did say to him, " _You're a good person when it counts,_ " a sentence that still haunted Scourge with his supposed badass rebellious lawbreaker persona.

Finally feeling better, Miles looked him in the eyes and asked, " You really think controlling the weather would be cool? " full of hope. " Of course it would! It'd just be another reason you'd be awesome! " Scourge replied encouragingly.

After some brief consideration, he stopped smiling and let him go while saying, " But again, let's not get our hopes up. And even if you could do that, heh, let's not have you stealing my thunder. " Confused, Miles said, " You mean you like hearing thunder too? Why? " It took a couple seconds of Scourge staring at him in confusion for him to realize he had taken it literally, and shook his head before correcting him,

" No, no, it's just a figure of speech. Wh-What I mean to say is, I don't want 'cha upstagin' me, ya know? _I'm_ the one who's the most badass criminal alive! That's not to say I don't want ya to get stronger and better, and more capable of defending yourself without me. I'm just saying, I don't want people to be _too_ afraid of _you,_ you know? "

Miles was silent for a second before cautiously replying, " I understand… " Unfortunately, the annoyance he had from that little speech slipped out in his tone, and Scourge caught it. " It's no big deal, is it? " he asked nervously, not wanting to get into an argument with his only friend.

" I, uh, no. I understand! Being a feared criminal is extremely important to you, and since you care about it so much more than me, it's only right that you should be the one with all the spotlight from that. Besides, spotlight isn't something I appreciate _myself,_ so even pretending I _could_ control the weather and stuff, it'd just give people even more reason to pay attention to me. One of the best things about having a friend is that you draw attention _away_ from me. People can't focus on my second tail for too long when they have to talk to you the minute they look at it! S-So yeah, I understand, Sonic, " Miles explained awkwardly, and thought to himself, " _It's an ego thing,_ " finishing the sentence where Scourge couldn't hear him.

For most of the time he knew Scourge, he found his unwavering confidence in himself inspiring and charming, something he tried to live vicariously through and support, something he felt was the source of Scourge's strength and allowed him to achieve things he'd be too scared to otherwise. But occasionally, Scourge's ego could get a bit too much even for him, particularly in situations where his brother was reminding him of how he should keep to his place and not upstage him from the limelight. He would always attack second, not first, and speak after he did. He wasn't the one in charge, and sometimes he was frustrated with himself for even questioning that, since logically, Scourge _should_ be in charge, being the one who was not only older than him, but well-versed in common knowledge at a much greater extent than him, making him both older and wiser. Miles wouldn't even be able to spell his own name if it weren't for him.

Of course he should be the one telling him what to do, because he was the only one who was very likely to be right about what he should do. Miles didn't always agree with his ideas, for example, not thinking that spray-painting the orphanage was a good decision, but he would always end up at least feeling half satisfied with it in the end, and consiering he never felt 100% of any emotion anyways, how was he supposed to know if that satisfaction was hollow? He didn't even feel 100% happy when shown affection because a part of him didn't think he deserved it. Did that mean he didn't actually like being shown love? Of course not. He couldn't get enough of it. With Miles being conflicted with basically every emotion he felt, always feeling at least two emotions at once, it was easy for him to get confused, and not know what he wanted or believed.

" A-After all, why should I upstage you? You're the older and wiser one. You're the one in charge, and you should be! You never doubt yourself and the decisions you make, while I do, and if you're the leader of this duo, then it's better to have the leader be a confident one. Meanwhile, I'm perfectly happy just being your ' trusty sidekick. ' I-I used that word right, right? Heard some kids saying it near the arcade, and… " Miles said to Scourge earnestly, despite some hesitation deep down that he mostly looked down on.

" Don't worry, you used it right, _sidekick._ It's just kinda weird since it's applied to heroes, not criminals, " Scourge said with a smile that was slightly forced, as he was nervous from what he said at remembering that even he doubted himself sometimes. From the very first day he met Miles, he had doubts over whether he'd be able to keep a friend so sensitive and troubled and whether he should even try taking on that responsibility, but he would never tell Miles that. He'd only overreact.

Miles replied, " Uh, okay. Guess I won't say it often, then, " confused, as he usually tried to convince himself that by limiting his targets to criminals, he _was_ a hero, albeit a non-traditional one. His only idea of a hero for his entire life was a person that would save his life and show compassion to him in spite of his mutation, and after meeting Scourge, perhaps even someone who _liked_ his second tail. His definition of hero couldn't get any more simplistic than that and the bar wasn't very high, and since it was such a broad definition, applying to anyone who wasn't discriminatory against someone different-looking to the point of wanting them dead, applying it to Scourge was easy for him.

That wasn't to say he thought criminals were the true heroes for rebelling against the rules of society. He suffered from criminals in the form of the teenaged gang members hired to bully him and hunt him down, so he still saw most criminals as villainous, but Scourge taught him to view his friends as exceptions to the rule, and he had never met any policeman or even fireman who was nice to him even though they were considered heroes in society. Doctors and nurses he was considering as heroes now that he met some that actually wanted to help him, but other than that, his morality had been twisted, viewing himself and Scourge as some of the only truly good people in the world.

" Well, that's good, kiddo. Good to see you know your place! Again, no offense. Now come on, let's find some more people to show who's boss! People are learning to respect your authority already! " Scourge said ruffling his hair at the first sentence. For the first time, Miles was irritated at him for talking to him like that, and Scourge noticed, and awkwardly had to ignore it as they started running down the sidewalk together. Even being called kiddo by him had lost its novelty as an affectionate nickname as the continued reminder of how it was used as an excuse to subordinate him became increasingly more frustrating for him, and he hated himself for it.

A part of him appreciated following all of Scourge's orders because he didn't have to think, he didn't have to be overwhelmed with uncertainty trying to figure out what the right way to live life was in a world of people that didn't grant him all the opportunities he'd want anyways.

But another part of him saw Scourge treating him like a child and making him do everything he said as restrictive and even condescending, and felt like he wasn't truly free just because he left his oppressive island, because he had to do everything Scourge said, even if he was opposed to it. Just last week, Scourge tried to get him to mug a regular person again, and while he didn't punish him for refusing per se, his annoyance with him and embarrassment was punishment enough. Not enough to discourage him from doing it again, but it was still a grim reminder that he wasn't truly free.

Did Scourge not really respect him? Did he not respect the idea of Miles being his own person, and having an identity and set of interests and opinions separate from him? Scourge always got mildly annoyed whenever he expressed morality and hesitated to break certain laws just for the sake of it, always leaving it up to him to terrorize regular people in spite of his attempt to get them to take turns. He didn't seem to like the idea that he loved playing music and arcade games and reseaching the weather much more than breaking the law and being seen as a feared criminal. It was as if regardless of how much he didn't want to, Scourge looked down on him being different from him, like a bully, and Miles was frustrated that he even dared to feel that way about Scourge since he was still very grateful and appreciative of even having a friend at all.

The thought of being " free " from Scourge terrified him, and drove him to tears just thinking about going back to being all alone. He didn't even want to be the one in charge because pretending Scourge even would like to follow his idea of only ever victimizing criminals, he didn't trust himself to not screw up with that authority, especially with his lack of experience and practical knowledge. He could name every type of cloud in the sky, but that kind of science trivia didn't help his day to day life, so he often wondered whether being a genius meant anything at all.

The part of him that was still blindly devoted and grateful just for the sake of it hated the part of him that was " immaturely " getting resentful of being treated like the child that he was, the ignorant uneducated naïve kid that he was, and he worried that if that resentment grew too much, it could cost him the only friend he had. There were a few times when that gave him nightmares, about something other than his past for once. He was determined to not show anything more than very brief frustration and annoyance with him, refusing to ever get into an argument, and instead used the anger and resentment in a " productive " way by fighting criminals even harder than before, something that only made Scourge proud of him and compliment him for " really getting into it. " Was that really someone he wanted to become?

Unfortunately, Scourge had his fair share of frustrations with the friendship, too. He just watched him have a panic attack in front of him, the worst one he ever had, and could barely get him to feel better, and even after he did, he knew full well that he might still end up feeling that way again. It was getting frustrating how he was completely powerless to fix the problem permanently. Even two months after Miles was on that island, traumatic memories would keep resurfacing and he'd keep being reminded of the past by even the slightest of things, and it looked like a situation that couldn't get better.

At the very least, he could take comfort in the fact that he made Miles' present situation a lot happier, even if his mind couldn't catch up to it, but sometimes all of his efforts to help him felt pointless knowing that he would always be suffering from his bullies' mistreatment long after leaving their island. There was no denying anymore that there might be something seriously wrong with him, and he'd have to accept that as part of who his friend is, as depressing as that would be.

He couldn't even express the sheer frustration and powerlessness properly because if he told Miles about it, the kid would only jump to the conclusion that he'd eventually get sick of such an emotionally draining friendship and give up on it. Scourge would rather believe he was too stubborn to do such a thing and would always stick with him, but Miles even months after meeting him thought he was extremely lucky he was even bothering with him at all, and often wondered why he put up with him.

So the only way he could even remotely express that frustration and feel more powerful than he was, was to keep beating up criminals in the alleys, just like he always did. Miles at least had gotten used to it, and even seemed to feel good about doing it justifying it to himself, which Scourge viewed as a huge step from just preferring to lock himself away in his house like a hermit and avoiding trying to interact with anyone but him.

But sometimes he felt that he would give all of that away in an instant to just get rid of the post-traumatic stress Miles kept showing he had. He was at the point where he secretly bought a book on psychological disorders at the book store just so he could learn more about how Miles thought. He had to read it at night with a dictionary on hand because of all the big words. At the very least, he finished reading it understanding it fairly well, and was proud of himself for that, but he wouldn't be bragging about it any time soon.

Just like he had worried at their first meeting, Miles was an overwhelming friend to have considering just how much he had suffered in the past, and it was an emotional rollercoaster having to comfort him so many times knowing he would only feel the same way again. The only up-side, which he tried to focus on the best he could, was that Miles appreciated affection from him so deeply from a lack of getting it in life. His comfort with him had even caused him to get gutsy enough to start showing affection to him himself recently, hugging him when no one was there to witness it. Considering Scourge himself had never gotten any affection to his recollection until he met Miles, with his parents being neglectful and all, having a friend who desperately craved affection and felt it was only right to show it to him in return seemed like the perfect match. It was a shame it came with so many downsides.

He only wished there was a way he could have that much affection without having to deal with a person's numerous fears and insecurities, and every so often, he internally scolded himself for seeming to not appreciate his only friend as much as he should. He was being disloyal just from thinking about that.

An ideal friendship could only stay ideal for so long, and the longer they knew each other, the harder it became to be unaware of the problems and concerns they each had about it. Miles wasn't entirely okay with the power dynamic of their friendship and how he wasn't fully respected for who he really was, and Scourge wished Miles wasn't so overwhelming to deal with at times.

They still appreciated each other, of course, with Scourge viewing Miles as otherwise the perfect friend from just how blindly loyal, devoted, compassionate and polite he was, and Miles loving how he had someone essentially raising him and being there for him mutation or not, someone who believed in him. No friendship could be perfect. At the very least, they appreciated the fact that they had one. It wouldn't be until they would meet a certain princess that cracks would start to form in the seams.

For now, Scourge was devoted to being as good a friend to Miles as possible, spending nearly every waking hour of the day with him, refusing to let his natural impatience, self-centeredness and recklessness ruin the only positive relationship with a person he ever had. And because Scourge was so loyal, so devoted to making him feel like he was loved, Miles was even more loyal to repay him. He felt like he earned it, even if it wasn't perfect.

A couple times over the year that they were each other's only friends, Miles became sick with a fever and had to stay in bed for almost the entirety of the day, and Scourge stayed home with him to reassure him, bringing him all of his meals and letting him sleep with his head on his chest in bed as they watched TV together. He didn't like having to stay at home, but at least he felt like he was needed and accomplishing something good for someone he cared about. On the rare occasion that Scourge was sick, Miles was happy to help.

Scourge not only wanted to get Miles comfortable with the city – which was what the tour of it was for – but he wanted to get Miles to start feeling like he was finally overcoming his past by getting revenge on the people of the world. He wanted him to join in on his favorite past-time, of course, but he also wanted him to feel like he had a safe outlet for his stress, and finally fully register that the tables had turned and now he was the one on top. But convincing him to take it all out on random people on the streets was a lot harder than he thought it was going to be. He thought that reminding him of how mean people were to him in the past would be all it would take to rile him up enough, but all it did was make him sad.

He didn't want to have to miss out on the thrills and satisfaction of winning fights because he'd have to worry about Miles being targeted while he was busy, and attacked because he was unwilling to attack first, and at the very least, telling him about that concern was enough to get him to understand. He had been practicing attacks on nothing but unmoving scarecrows set up in his backyard, and he needed to apply that to the real thing to learn how to win a fight, to get the first hit on people who would inevitably hurt him so that he would be able to win. It was all in the interest of getting him stronger.

But he still showed hesitation. Scourge couldn't even get him to agree to knock down a random man on the street and demand his wallet, one of the most petty crimes in his opinion. Needless to say, he found that embarrassing, as Miles had awkwardly went over to the man only to run back into the alley frightened of him, and Scourge felt the need to show him how to do it right. He knocked the man down with a homing-attack and said standing on his chest, " You, bozo! You got any cash on you or what?! "

The man was a Moebian of the jackal race, and he yelped at what happened saying, " Sonic the Hedgehog! Don't hurt me! Take my money! " letting Scourge take the paper bills out of his wallet looking uncharacteristically annoyed rather than smirking during the experience. This was something the man didn't fail to notice, and Scourge in his bad mood had to specifically tell him, " What'dya doin' standin' here?! Get lost! " to get him to leave. All the while, Miles stared at the sight uncomfortable, hoping he wouldn't be seen himself.

Scourge put the money in his leather jacket pocket as he left, and didn't look directly at Miles at first as he tried to make a compromise with him. Normally, Miles was loyal enough to do literally whatever he wanted, so running into that level of hesitation from him was frustrating, to say the least, and he took deep breaths in and out, trying his best to not get him upset by losing his temper. Miles could tell how he was feeling, and wished that it could only be some other way.

" Alright, looks like we gotta start small. What people do you think in this city deserve to suffer the most? " he asked Miles, trying and failing to hide his exasperation with him. " Mean people, " the kid answered unhappily, not understanding what he meant by the figure of speech. Scourge replied, " Well, that man you chickened out of mugging was mean just like your bullies, and that didn't help motivate you, so clearly you want some different targets. "

Miles, feeling pressured to give him an answer, said, " I-I think the people should do something to really get it coming first. And if what you said about city folk was true, then just waiting for someone willing to insult me to my face means we'll be waiting forever. So if they're too afraid to provoke us, maybe we need to look for the people that aren't necessarily being mean to _us,_ but to _other_ people. Not that I care what bullies do to other bullies, I'm just saying I'd feel a lot better if I knew for an absolute fact that our target was an awful person who had it coming. " Scourge, getting an idea, asked him still feeling a bit frustrated with him, " You mean like a criminal or something? "

Seeing the annoyed look in his eyes, Miles said nervously, " Not you! Someone else! A criminal who isn't nice to me, who wouldn't give me a chance. Those are the people that deserve to suffer the most, but you've proven that you're the exception. You're not like those people! You're a good person when it counts… " Scourge looked at him stunned and conflicted once again, and then looked to the left and right of him hoping nobody heard that.

" That's a compliment. What I mean is, well, I had a lot of bad experiences with teenagers wearing black jackets. I heard them calling each other a gang sometimes, and they were the people aside from the cops who were the most willing to hunt me down and, beat me! I-It got to the point where the people of the island would hire them to look for me and supply them with weapons, and whatever they asked for, they got… " Miles was full of sadness and dread by the third sentence, getting increasingly more scared just at talking about it, and had to take a deep breath to calm himself down, remembering what Scourge advised him to do. Getting angry, he continued with a passionate desire for justice against his oppressors,

" Those are the kind of people I hate! Those are the people that should pay! The ones who love to hurt people to the point where they jump at the opportunity to do it to me! A-At least when I wasn't already in the process of taking stuff from their homes, the rest of the island dwellers didn't actively hunt me down. The worst they did was _insult_ me when I was too far away from their frying pans and other weapons. So while the regular law-following people were certainly awful, they were the best of the worst. They're not who I want to hurt. I-I mean, they're not the people I want to _focus_ on right now! The regular people of the world are just as discriminatory as criminals, but at least _they're_ _subtle._ I wanna prove to them that I'm not to be messed with, just like you said, but maybe the best way to start with that is to find the worst of this city and make an example out of them. "

Scourge nodded, realizing that Miles' desire to be a vigilante could be the only thing that would get him to do what he wanted. It would be much easier of a transition getting Miles to fight criminals with him than regular civilians who hadn't done anything to him. As a result, the general target of Scourge's law-breaking soon switched to the random criminals he found in the inner city and alleys. That wasn't to say he stopped causing trouble to regular people, cutting in line and forcing people out of arcades for Miles' sake, but if he were to get Miles used to starting fights and breaking the law with him, it would be a lot easier getting him to start if he felt justified in it. He'd be able to make up excuses for fighting regular people later, just like his big brother did. But for the first year of their friendship, Miles only targeted criminals.

So he spent a lot of his daily runs through the city with Scourge doing just that, fighting criminals in alleys, taking full advantage of the sheer force at which he attacked with his super speed and how Scourge was always right there by his side. The only thing Miles really complained about when it came to that, was the smell of the dumpsters and trash cans that were often in the alleys that they had to run through looking for criminals, and fortunately, Scourge didn't figure out exactly why he complained.

On the fifth day that Miles ran through the city with Scourge, Miles gasped startled when they heard a gunfire sound in one of the alleys. Scourge immediately ran into it at sonic speed and homing-attacked the one with the gun in a blue blur, knocking him down with a thud, and fortunately for the already traumatized Miles, the gunfire had purely happened because the mugger had fired a shot into the air to scare the civilian he was robbing. As soon as Scourge knocked him down, Miles rushed in and slammed the mugger with his staff repeatedly, shouting angrily to him, " Take this, you _bully!_ "

Kicking the mugger's dropped gun far away from him, Scourge could tell from Miles' shrunken pupils and trembling that he was still terrified from the sound of the gunfire, despite his vicious attacking and angry expression hiding it, and even if that hadn't been a clear enough sign, his use of the word bully gave it away. The civilian they rescued from the mugging stared at the sight in a mixture of anxiety, confusion, and appreciation, and quickly decided to run away while he still had his money, not trusting Scourge to not rob him himself after he was done showing his dominance over the mugger.

When they had attacked him enough that he seemed unwilling to get back up, but was still very much conscious and terrified, Scourge said smugly, " Send a message to all the other scum like you. There's only one lawbreaker worth anything around these parts and it's me! I'll be takin' your money, thank you, " taking his wallet out of his jacket. Miles added bitterly, " I think that'll be the best punishment, considering _you_ were about to do the same thing! " and then smiled, feeling like a hero for what he had done to the robber.

After the two of them ran at almost the speed of sound out of the alley and stopped at the city park, Scourge said happily, " You did great, Miles! I'm so proud of you! " ruffled his hair and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead again much to his delight. Scourge exclaimed in excitement, " I didn't even have to do anything to make ya join in! You just came in swinging that staff of yours and being a badass! And what you said to him, actually talking to our target? Perfect! You're really getting the hang of this. We're gonna make the best duo ever! "

Miles giggled happily at that, and gladly ran after him as they continued their run through the city. While hearing gunfire again was terrifying for him, the sheer pride he felt in taking down a mugger right before he could commit the crime made him feel so great, that it was as if nearly all of his reservations against fighting criminals with Scourge were pointless. It was that moment that taught him that he was doing the right thing. It was satisfying getting all of that pent-up aggression out on someone he knew for a fact deserved it, instead of bottling it all up out of fear while feeling increasingly helpless and unhappy. He would still rather just stand there and let Scourge be the one cutting in line and taking money from more innocent-looking people, but for criminals, he was happy to be the one giving them what they deserved with Scourge.

While he would never stop being intimidated by strangers and being on edge from being in large crowds, Miles was able to get used to running through the city with Scourge, and with him stealing and winning fights with criminals all over the city, Miles quickly gained a reputation as not only a two-tailed fox, but as Scourge the Hedgehog's most loyal and threatening associate, out for revenge against a world that persecuted him for his second tail. Civilians still looked at him in confusion and surprise at him having a second tail, but as long as he was with Scourge, they were too intimidated to harass him.

A month of spending every day with Miles allowed Scourge to learn a lot about him from observing even the most obscure of quirks about his behavior. He noticed that the kid never liked to have his back to anyone, possibly out of the anxiety that they'd yank his tails if he did that. Whenever he did have to have his back to someone, like after cutting in line with him, he always moved his tails to almost in front of his body to prevent the person behind him from grabbing them. It was an instinctive response that Scourge eventually started noticing as he wondered why he was doing it and acting nervous for no good reason.

Getting more comfortable around Miles caused Scourge to be more reckless, forgetting how sensitive Miles really was, and that led to more instances where he would get him frustrated or upset. Interrupting Miles got him depressed and quiet at believing that talking was pointless, the kid was becoming increasingly more likely to get annoyed at being called kiddo and treated differently for being young, and one time, Scourge playfully pinched him to get him to stop being absorbed in a past memory and get his attention, only to startle him severely as a result. For the most part, though, he was just as friendly and considerate to him as he was before, and his insensitivity wasn't anything he didn't show trying to lightheartedly tease and poke fun at him when they first knew each other.

On the way to the first alley they'd run through, over a month after they met, Miles gasped at hearing the sound of a car engine backfiring and was thrown into a panic. The memory of the last time he had heard gunfire on his island came back so clear that it was as if he could actually hear the voice of the person who had fired it right across from him. " _Freak! Hold still!_ " he heard in his panicked mind, and as a result, while he was already running to keep up with Scourge on the sidewalk, the fear of getting shot caused him to immediately want to hide.

As soon as they found the alley, Miles ran ahead of Scourge and hid himself in the dumpster, much to Scourge's shock and confusion. He had heard the sound as well, but he had hoped that it sounded too different from gunfire for him to panic, or that it had been long enough that he would stop reacting so severely to what he started calling his reminders. " Miles, it's okay! Come on, get outta there, it must stink! " he said opening the dumpster, trying to ignore the frightened gasp from Miles at him doing so.

Hearing that he was being called by his actual name stunned him back into the present for the most part, and despite his trembling, he forced a sheepish smile as he flew out of the dumpster and back onto the cement floor of the alley. Humiliated, he said quietly, " Thanks. I hate it in there… I just wanted a safe place to hide. " His head was hung low, and his eyes were downcast and miserable. Feeling terrible for him, and thankful that no one seemed to be around to witness the scene, Scourge asked him, " Were these what you usually had to hide in? "

Starting out depressed and becoming more passionately angry, Miles explained, " No, my island had so little people, it only had _one_ of these big things, and I got thrown inside of it for trying to drink from the park fountain! Occasionally I'd hide in trash cans and be able to avoid getting hurt, but most of the time they either had too much stuff in them to fit me, or I'd get attacked and thrown into them instead, and then the contents of them would be dumped on me by those stupid teenagers! I hate those things!... Even the food in them is terrible. Just made me sick. "

Scourge knew he shouldn't be surprised anymore whenever he was given new information about how Miles had been treated in the past, but for some reason, he still had enough compassion in him for the child to still be horrified and stunned every time he heard about it. It just didn't seem fair that Miles was treated like that consistently his whole life, without even a single person feeling sorry for him enough to start helping him. " You'd think they would've gotten used to the second tail… " he muttered facing the wall to the left of him with his fist clenched.

Miles heard him, and continued to feel just as melancholic as before, saying, " No one will ever be used to it. " Scourge immediately replied, " I am. I love it! Used to it is an understatement. Don't listen to those jealous idiots, you're gifted, Miles. You're special! " and put his arm around him to hold him close. " Thanks, " Miles said with a small smile, thinking, " _But that's only you… Everyone else knows I'm just a freak._ "

Seeing that Miles was still depressed, Scourge tried to cheer him up some more. " Hey, you know, there's a photographer at the mall today! How's about I bring ya there to celebrate a month of our friendship? " he said cheerfully, with his smile a bit forced from pity. " Sure, okay, " Miles replied reluctantly, not knowing what a photographer was but not feeling like making himself sound like an idiot again by asking. With that, the two of them started running through the streets to the mall.

When they got there, Miles gasped at seeing a flash of light come from the small black box the photographer was holding in front of a couple. Scourge, misinterpreting the source of his anxiety, said to the photographer while giving him his stolen money, " Don't use the flash on it for us, " with an annoyed expression. Noticing Miles hadn't followed him up to the photographer yet, he reassured him, " It's okay, it's fine. You won't see that flash of light anymore. Now come here! Let's get a family photo! "

Miles nervously smiled until the final sentence, where he was caught between being really happy and excited and being nervous again at his picture being taken. Not wanting him to waste his money, Miles went up to Scourge obediently, and his nervous expression became a more happy one when Scourge ruffled his hair and put his arm around him holding him close to his side. The photographer told them to, " Say cheese! " and since Scourge did it, Miles followed suit despite not understanding why he should.

" There you go, " the photographer said giving them the resulting photograph, which had them in the same poses as before smiling happily, even if Miles was clearly trying to hide one of his tails behind his back. With that, Scourge handed it to Miles saying, " Here ya go, a picture of us for posterity! You can keep it in your pocket and treasure it! " Miles very quickly did just that, putting the picture in his leather jacket pocket and zipping the pocket up trying to avoid looking at the picture of himself. Scourge looked concerned at his reaction, wondering if his hatred of seeing himself ran deep enough to ruin photographs for him.

Trying to distract him, Miles cheerfully pointed out, " Posterity, huh? " Scourge, also wanting to lighten things up, replied, " Yep, I learned it from you! I keep tellin' ya, you're getting a better vocabulary every day thanks to that dictionary I found ya. And you're making _me_ smarter because of it! Keep it up! " and gave him a thumbs up. Walking away from the photographer with him, Miles found it amusing and charming that Scourge, a wannabe gangster and proud criminal, was so proud of using big words just for the sake of it, and wondered if it showed that he really did respect him. At the same time, though, hearing that humbled him once again, as he admitted sheepishly,

" Well, I don't always remember every word I read about. I didn't even know what a photographer was until you brought me to that guy. Although that worked out for us, I would've irrationally said no otherwise. " Looking worried, Scourge said, " Don't tell me you've had bad experiences with photographers too! " Miles replied unhappily, " Okay. " " I didn't mean literally! " Scourge said in annoyance, which only made Miles feel worse.

Trying to pretend he wasn't offended, Miles reluctantly explained, " People on my island tried to take pictures of me to humiliate me, and worst of all, to spread the word of what I looked like so nobody would make the mistake of helping me, even if they didn't live on the island. They told me why they were doing it before doing it, so it's no wonder I don't like getting my picture taken. "

Scourge wished there was something he could to make him completely get over that fear, and all of his irrational fears, but all he could do was compassionately rub his shoulder and say, " Well, that's all over now, " despite knowing Miles' mind wouldn't register that as true. After that, they quickly resumed their run through the city, showing dominance over the various criminals around.

Another month passed, and on their way to their first alley of the day a morning after a storm, Scourge ran across a puddle on the sidewalk once again, but this time, the splash of water his shoes created reached high up enough to splash in Miles' eyes behind him. Most of the time, Miles was able to avoid such a scenario by wearing sunglasses and running beside Scourge rather than behind him, but this time, he wasn't so lucky, and the water in his eyes immediately made him close them out of an inability to see ahead of him. Not wanting to blindly run into anything, like the back of Scourge's spines, or a car, he stopped in his tracks to rub his eyes frantically in an instinctive reaction, forgetting that he was trying to keep up with someone.

Fortunately, Scourge quickly noticed a lack of the sound of footsteps behind him and asked the question, " You okay, Miles? " wondering if he had started flying behind him. Getting no answer caused him to immediately run back at the speed of sound to where he last heard Miles, where he saw him drying his eyes with his gloves. Jumping to the conclusion that he was crying and wondering what could've possibly caused it this time, he hugged him, getting his attention immediately.

" Thank you… I-I'm not crying, Sonic. A puddle splashed water in my eyes, and I couldn't see for a little bit. It's dangerous to run blind, " Miles said sadly after reluctantly letting go of him when the hug ended. " Do you have a lot of experience with that? I mean, you can't always stop running just because a puddle splashed ya, and it was pretty rainy back on your island, " Scourge asked unhappily.

" Sometimes it was a puddle, sometimes it was sand, sometimes it was, my own tears… " Miles replied, whispering the last few words full of shame and disrespect for himself. There was a brief silence as Scourge let it all sink in, before Miles continued sadly,

" It always sucked getting something in my eyes, especially when I was running! I had to constantly do zig zags and run in unpredictable routes to try to throw people off my trail, and in a forest full of trees for me to run into and tree trunks to trip on and bushes to get caught in, that was hard enough on its own even with being able to see. Sure, I could leave them all in the dust at first, but they'd never stop chasing me, they'd call up people in the direction I was headed warning them to be ready for me, and I would get tired eventually and need to hide… I'm sorry I brought up such a depressing topic again. I promised myself I'd stop talking about the past. You already know enough. "

Once again, Scourge could do nothing but reassure him. " It's okay now, little bro. You'll never have to set foot on that island again, " to briefly cheer him up for the time being. " Come on, let's go to the arcade, have some fun! " he added happily to his delight. " Sure! You know, Sonic, the very concept of a video game never ceases to amaze me. Being able to interact with a colorful fictional world in a way that's satisfying, with music and visuals nothing like that of the real world, it's perfect escapism! "

Scourge commented as they started walking to the arcade, " You wouldn't like modern games, then. They like to have realistic graphics that look dark and gritty, all black and brown. Oh, by graphics, I mean the way they look. " Wanting to not look ignorant, Miles nodded despite not knowing what he meant by modern games, as from his perspective, since arcade machines still existed in the present time, arcade games were modern to him.

" Really ought to thank the arcade's owner for building all of those amazing machines, " Miles commented cheerfully. Scourge chuckled at the end of it finding his wrong assumption cute, and said, " You think he programmed all those games himself? Nah, he just gets them from someone who did. I can't imagine he'd have the time, let alone the ability when all he's capable of doing is taking money from behind a counter all day. "

Miles looked embarrassed and sheepishly replied, " Oh. Should've known, " with nervous body language. Scourge playfully teased him, " What, did ya think that was the case for _all_ stores, that every little tiny thing in a store was personally crafted by the store owner himself and all of the fruits and veggies were grown and harvested by him, and every little fish was personally fished up by the store owner himself? " There was a brief silence before Miles admitted, " Maybe… " having not thought about it all the way through.

Scourge chuckled and exclaimed, " Aw, that's adorable! " and ruffled his hair, saying lovingly, " Love ya, little bro. Never change. " Miles laughed nervously, torn between being blissfully appreciative of being loved and feeling frustration at the condescending treatment. He couldn't help being inexperienced.

Needless to say, Scourge ever since they first went in there had made it a monthly routine to go to the arcade that Miles liked so much, viewing it as the one fun part of the city. They would've gone every day, but Miles to Scourge's annoyance was opposed to that, explaining, " W-Well, the people going to the arcade can only have so much money, so what if they get to a point where they won't be able to show up there for you to take their money anymore? What if they give up and stop showing up there entirely because we show up too much? What if the arcade's owner stops getting people showing up entirely and gives up on the arcade? That's also why we shouldn't be too predictable and consistent, because if they learn to predict when we're going to show up, then we're gonna end up going there to an empty arcade with no coins for us to use. So we can't go there every day and expect it to always work out. It's just impractical. "

Scourge had no choice but to reluctantly nod in agreement, understanding that Miles had a very strong point, even if he was ultimately just telling him he couldn't do too much stealing or there would be consequences for him, just like his parents used to nag him.

After leaving the arcade together, they ran through the city for a while until the sight and smell of a burning building stopped them in their tracks. In front of them was a house on fire, and there were various firemen using hoses to put out the flames. Seeing the familiar sight made Miles stare at it with an expression of dread and horror, and the clouds just above the house started to increase in size rapidly and darken within the span of a couple seconds before pouring torrential rains onto the flames, as if in an effort to put them out. Of course, everyone noticed how unusual this was, having torrential downpours concentrated into such a tiny area, but Miles being in the city for so long had at least gotten people to accept it as a regular occurrence, if a strange one with no real explanation.

Seeing that Miles was trembling uncontrollably with his pupils shrunken at the sight and smell of the burning house, and one he had no real attachment to at that, Scourge sighed unhappily. He wanted to just grab his hand and pull him behind him as he ran away from the house with him, but that might only get him even more panicked at being pulled by someone so suddenly. He asked one of the fireman awkwardly, " S-So, why's it on fire? " The fireman looked at him surprised, knowing how uncharacteristic someone of his reputation was acting, and quickly answered as he continuing spraying the hose, " Lightning strike. "

Unfortunately, this was the worst possible response he could give for Miles, and the fact that he was a fireman looking in his general direction didn't help, as he started to irrationally fear that he would blame him for it and turn his hose on him. He exclaimed hysterically, " Lightning?! NO! Don't look at me! I-I didn't want this to happen, it's awful! PLEASE! " and impulsively started running away in a yellow blur, certain that the fireman's next action would be to try to drown him with his hose. All Scourge could do in response was run after him and eventually catch up with him, incredibly concerned and worried about him, while at the same time, he was frustrated that the scene he caused gave the people of the city even more reason to call Miles a coward.

Catching up to him and saying, " Miles, relax, " in a reassuring tone mixed with panic only gave him a startled jolt, and he impulsively turned to the right into the thankfully empty city park and continued running away, saying, " No, no! Everyone's gonna blame me for this! Everyone's gonna try to kill me again! We gotta move, we gotta change towns! "

Seeing that he had no other choice, Scourge scooped him up into his arms carrying him as he ran beside him and shushed him as he slowed to a halt with him, trying his best to get him back to his senses. Miles was surprised and caught off guard by that bold action, but being caressed reassuringly helped to calm him down to merely whimpering as he was being carefully sat down on the park grass and hugged.

Scourge explained to him with a smile as Miles returned the hug, " Relax, everything will be fine… Remember, Miles, you live with me, and _no one's_ gonna cross me, and considering my father has an insane amount of power over the world, no one's gonna force him to move either. Hell, even if people do blame you, that'll just _add_ to your _menacing_ factor and make people less likely to wanna mess with ya, especially since you're with me… Things are different in the city, Miles. In your small town, everybody knew each other, so everyone was willing to work together against you, but in the city, everyone's a stranger. They're not gonna all rise up in an angry mob with people they don't even trust… And even if they do, I'll just run around 'em in a circle and catch 'em all in a tornado to humiliate 'em. With my super speed, I'm basically _invincible_ compared to those slowpokes! So don't worry, Miles. We'll be just fine… "

After hearing a familiar sniffle, he realized Miles had started crying, and the kid said sadly, " It isn't just people hurting me that I'm worried about... I've always been blamed for lightning strikes, and they only started happening in a huge quantity in one area when I was born, when I was brought to the island, so what if people are right? What if that lightning strike only happened because of me? I didn't wanna be responsible for some random person's house getting burned down! But I couldn't keep it from happening. What if the same thing happens to our house?! Just like with the orphanage! It got struck when I was still living in it and I was barely able to escape! There were people in there and… "

It was hard to argue with Miles' reasoning, and Scourge couldn't help but be worried at hearing it, but ultimately, it was his job to comfort him, not tell him he was right all the time. Scourge reassured him successfully, " Well, that orphanage was full of people who hated ya. Now that you live with me, maybe that lightning won't wanna bother me because you like me so much. How about that? And besides, maybe the lightning that hit that house you saw, was going to happen _anyways_ even if you _weren't_ in this city. I know you didn't want that to happen. So if you really aren't the type to like setting things on fire – n-not that _I've_ ever done it – then I can't imagine you telling lightning to do that, even subconsciously. Assuming that ridiculous superstition that you can control it by accident is even true! Those backwoods islanders might have just brainwashed you into believing it. I don't see how having a second tail would give you the ability to control the weather. It'd be cool as hell, but let's not get our hopes up. "

Miles smiled a little at hearing him say the word subconsciously, always finding it charming when a criminal like him used a big word like that for the sake of it, and feeling like he might be a positive influence on him in intelligence alone. Of course, when Scourge said he never set anything on fire, he was lying through his teeth, but Miles by that point blindly trusted him enough to believe him. After all, he did say to him, " _You're a good person when it counts,_ " a sentence that still haunted Scourge with his supposed badass rebellious lawbreaker persona.

Finally feeling better, Miles looked him in the eyes and asked, " You really think controlling the weather would be cool? " full of hope. " Of course it would! It'd just be another reason you'd be awesome! " Scourge replied encouragingly.

After some brief consideration, he stopped smiling and let him go while saying, " But again, let's not get our hopes up. And even if you could do that, heh, let's not have you stealing my thunder. " Confused, Miles said, " You mean you like hearing thunder too? Why? " It took a couple seconds of Scourge staring at him in confusion for him to realize he had taken it literally, and shook his head before correcting him,

" No, no, it's just a figure of speech. Wh-What I mean to say is, I don't want 'cha upstagin' me, ya know? _I'm_ the one who's the most badass criminal alive! That's not to say I don't want ya to get stronger and better, and more capable of defending yourself without me. I'm just saying, I don't want people to be _too_ afraid of _you,_ you know? "

Miles was silent for a second before cautiously replying, " I understand… " Unfortunately, the annoyance he had from that little speech slipped out in his tone, and Scourge caught it. " It's no big deal, is it? " he asked nervously, not wanting to get into an argument with his only friend.

" I, uh, no. I understand! Being a feared criminal is extremely important to you, and since you care about it so much more than me, it's only right that you should be the one with all the spotlight from that. Besides, spotlight isn't something I appreciate _myself,_ so even pretending I _could_ control the weather and stuff, it'd just give people even more reason to pay attention to me. One of the best things about having a friend is that you draw attention _away_ from me. People can't focus on my second tail for too long when they have to talk to you the minute they look at it! S-So yeah, I understand, Sonic, " Miles explained awkwardly, and thought to himself, " _It's an ego thing,_ " finishing the sentence where Scourge couldn't hear him.

For most of the time he knew Scourge, he found his unwavering confidence in himself inspiring and charming, something he tried to live vicariously through and support, something he felt was the source of Scourge's strength and allowed him to achieve things he'd be too scared to otherwise. But occasionally, Scourge's ego could get a bit too much even for him, particularly in situations where his brother was reminding him of how he should keep to his place and not upstage him from the limelight. He would always attack second, not first, and speak after he did. He wasn't the one in charge, and sometimes he was frustrated with himself for even questioning that, since logically, Scourge _should_ be in charge, being the one who was not only older than him, but well-versed in common knowledge at a much greater extent than him, making him both older and wiser. Miles wouldn't even be able to spell his own name if it weren't for him.

Of course he should be the one telling him what to do, because he was the only one who was very likely to be right about what he should do. Miles didn't always agree with his ideas, for example, not thinking that spray-painting the orphanage was a good decision, but he would always end up at least feeling half satisfied with it in the end, and consiering he never felt 100% of any emotion anyways, how was he supposed to know if that satisfaction was hollow? He didn't even feel 100% happy when shown affection because a part of him didn't think he deserved it. Did that mean he didn't actually like being shown love? Of course not. He couldn't get enough of it. With Miles being conflicted with basically every emotion he felt, always feeling at least two emotions at once, it was easy for him to get confused, and not know what he wanted or believed.

" A-After all, why should I upstage you? You're the older and wiser one. You're the one in charge, and you should be! You never doubt yourself and the decisions you make, while I do, and if you're the leader of this duo, then it's better to have the leader be a confident one. Meanwhile, I'm perfectly happy just being your ' trusty sidekick. ' I-I used that word right, right? Heard some kids saying it near the arcade, and… " Miles said to Scourge earnestly, despite some hesitation deep down that he mostly looked down on.

" Don't worry, you used it right, _sidekick._ It's just kinda weird since it's applied to heroes, not criminals, " Scourge said with a smile that was slightly forced, as he was nervous from what he said at remembering that even he doubted himself sometimes. From the very first day he met Miles, he had doubts over whether he'd be able to keep a friend so sensitive and troubled and whether he should even try taking on that responsibility, but he would never tell Miles that. He'd only overreact.

Miles replied, " Uh, okay. Guess I won't say it often, then, " confused, as he usually tried to convince himself that by limiting his targets to criminals, he _was_ a hero, albeit a non-traditional one. His only idea of a hero for his entire life was a person that would save his life and show compassion to him in spite of his mutation, and after meeting Scourge, perhaps even someone who _liked_ his second tail. His definition of hero couldn't get any more simplistic than that and the bar wasn't very high, and since it was such a broad definition, applying to anyone who wasn't discriminatory against someone different-looking to the point of wanting them dead, applying it to Scourge was easy for him.

That wasn't to say he thought criminals were the true heroes for rebelling against the rules of society. He suffered from criminals in the form of the teenaged gang members hired to bully him and hunt him down, so he still saw most criminals as villainous, but Scourge taught him to view his friends as exceptions to the rule, and he had never met any policeman or even fireman who was nice to him even though they were considered heroes in society. Doctors and nurses he was considering as heroes now that he met some that actually wanted to help him, but other than that, his morality had been twisted, viewing himself and Scourge as some of the only truly good people in the world.

" Well, that's good, kiddo. Good to see you know your place! Again, no offense. Now come on, let's find some more people to show who's boss! People are learning to respect your authority already! " Scourge said ruffling his hair at the first sentence. For the first time, Miles was irritated at him for talking to him like that, and Scourge noticed, and awkwardly had to ignore it as they started running down the sidewalk together. Even being called kiddo by him had lost its novelty as an affectionate nickname as the continued reminder of how it was used as an excuse to subordinate him became increasingly more frustrating for him, and he hated himself for it.

A part of him appreciated following all of Scourge's orders because he didn't have to think, he didn't have to be overwhelmed with uncertainty trying to figure out what the right way to live life was in a world of people that didn't grant him all the opportunities he'd want anyways.

But another part of him saw Scourge treating him like a child and making him do everything he said as restrictive and even condescending, and felt like he wasn't truly free just because he left his oppressive island, because he had to do everything Scourge said, even if he was opposed to it. Just last week, Scourge tried to get him to mug a regular person again, and while he didn't punish him for refusing per se, his annoyance with him and embarrassment was punishment enough. Not enough to discourage him from doing it again, but it was still a grim reminder that he wasn't truly free.

Did Scourge not really respect him? Did he not respect the idea of Miles being his own person, and having an identity and set of interests and opinions separate from him? Scourge always got mildly annoyed whenever he expressed morality and hesitated to break certain laws just for the sake of it, always leaving it up to him to terrorize regular people in spite of his attempt to get them to take turns. He didn't seem to like the idea that he loved playing music and arcade games and reseaching the weather much more than breaking the law and being seen as a feared criminal. It was as if regardless of how much he didn't want to, Scourge looked down on him being different from him, like a bully, and Miles was frustrated that he even dared to feel that way about Scourge since he was still very grateful and appreciative of even having a friend at all.

The thought of being " free " from Scourge terrified him, and drove him to tears just thinking about going back to being all alone. He didn't even want to be the one in charge because pretending Scourge even would like to follow his idea of only ever victimizing criminals, he didn't trust himself to not screw up with that authority, especially with his lack of experience and practical knowledge. He could name every type of cloud in the sky, but that kind of science trivia didn't help his day to day life, so he often wondered whether being a genius meant anything at all.

The part of him that was still blindly devoted and grateful just for the sake of it hated the part of him that was " immaturely " getting resentful of being treated like the child that he was, the ignorant uneducated naïve kid that he was, and he worried that if that resentment grew too much, it could cost him the only friend he had. There were a few times when that gave him nightmares, about something other than his past for once. He was determined to not show anything more than very brief frustration and annoyance with him, refusing to ever get into an argument, and instead used the anger and resentment in a " productive " way by fighting criminals even harder than before, something that only made Scourge proud of him and compliment him for " really getting into it. " Was that really someone he wanted to become?

Unfortunately, Scourge had his fair share of frustrations with the friendship, too. He just watched him have a panic attack in front of him, the worst one he ever had, and could barely get him to feel better, and even after he did, he knew full well that he might still end up feeling that way again. It was getting frustrating how he was completely powerless to fix the problem permanently. Even two months after Miles was on that island, traumatic memories would keep resurfacing and he'd keep being reminded of the past by even the slightest of things, and it looked like a situation that couldn't get better.

At the very least, he could take comfort in the fact that he made Miles' present situation a lot happier, even if his mind couldn't catch up to it, but sometimes all of his efforts to help him felt pointless knowing that he would always be suffering from his bullies' mistreatment long after leaving their island. There was no denying anymore that there might be something seriously wrong with him, and he'd have to accept that as part of who his friend is, as depressing as that would be.

He couldn't even express the sheer frustration and powerlessness properly because if he told Miles about it, the kid would only jump to the conclusion that he'd eventually get sick of such an emotionally draining friendship and give up on it. Scourge would rather believe he was too stubborn to do such a thing and would always stick with him, but Miles even months after meeting him thought he was extremely lucky he was even bothering with him at all, and often wondered why he put up with him.

So the only way he could even remotely express that frustration and feel more powerful than he was, was to keep beating up criminals in the alleys, just like he always did. Miles at least had gotten used to it, and even seemed to feel good about doing it justifying it to himself, which Scourge viewed as a huge step from just preferring to lock himself away in his house like a hermit and avoiding trying to interact with anyone but him.

But sometimes he felt that he would give all of that away in an instant to just get rid of the post-traumatic stress Miles kept showing he had. He was at the point where he secretly bought a book on psychological disorders at the book store just so he could learn more about how Miles thought. He had to read it at night with a dictionary on hand because of all the big words. At the very least, he finished reading it understanding it fairly well, and was proud of himself for that, but he wouldn't be bragging about it any time soon.

Just like he had worried at their first meeting, Miles was an overwhelming friend to have considering just how much he had suffered in the past, and it was an emotional rollercoaster having to comfort him so many times knowing he would only feel the same way again. The only up-side, which he tried to focus on the best he could, was that Miles appreciated affection from him so deeply from a lack of getting it in life. His comfort with him had even caused him to get gutsy enough to start showing affection to him himself recently, hugging him when no one was there to witness it. Considering Scourge himself had never gotten any affection to his recollection until he met Miles, with his parents being neglectful and all, having a friend who desperately craved affection and felt it was only right to show it to him in return seemed like the perfect match. It was a shame it came with so many downsides.

He only wished there was a way he could have that much affection without having to deal with a person's numerous fears and insecurities, and every so often, he internally scolded himself for seeming to not appreciate his only friend as much as he should. He was being disloyal just from thinking about that.

An ideal friendship could only stay ideal for so long, and the longer they knew each other, the harder it became to be unaware of the problems and concerns they each had about it. Miles wasn't entirely okay with the power dynamic of their friendship and how he wasn't fully respected for who he really was, and Scourge wished Miles wasn't so overwhelming to deal with at times.

They still appreciated each other, of course, with Scourge viewing Miles as otherwise the perfect friend from just how blindly loyal, devoted, compassionate and polite he was, and Miles loving how he had someone essentially raising him and being there for him mutation or not, someone who believed in him. No friendship could be perfect. At the very least, they appreciated the fact that they had one. It wouldn't be until they would meet a certain princess that cracks would start to form in the seams.

For now, Scourge was devoted to being as good a friend to Miles as possible, spending nearly every waking hour of the day with him, refusing to let his natural impatience, self-centeredness and recklessness ruin the only positive relationship with a person he ever had. And because Scourge was so loyal, so devoted to making him feel like he was loved, Miles was even more loyal to repay him. He felt like he earned it, even if it wasn't perfect.

A couple times over the year that they were each other's only friends, Miles became sick with a fever and had to stay in bed for almost the entirety of the day, and Scourge stayed home with him to reassure him, bringing him all of his meals and letting him sleep with his head on his chest in bed as they watched TV together. He didn't like having to stay at home, but at least he felt like he was needed and accomplishing something good for someone he cared about. On the rare occasion that Scourge was sick, Miles was happy to help.


	5. Chapter 5

Three weeks later, they were running by a residential area on their way to the city when Miles saw a civilian raking their lawn of leaves, and gasped jumping startled at the sight, which unfortunately caused the civilian to notice him and make things worse. " Come on, let's go, " Scourge said hurriedly, briefly grabbing Miles' hand and running with him. When he regained his bearings and managed to get his feet back on the ground, rather than only remaining upright with Scourge because of his tails spinning behind him blasting wind, he stammered, " T-Thanks, Sonic. I don't like those things… " to his concerned but understanding brother.

Scourge didn't want to imagine how much it would hurt to be hit by a rake, and the damage it caused to Miles' young skin, let alone how bad it would be to be hurt by them enough to start only thinking of them as weapons. There was a reason he promised to himself that if he ever took over the world or something, he'd get revenge on Miles' island for him on sheer principle.

As the winter began to start, Miles began to complain about the dropping temperatures that he had to deal with every time he went outside with him, and considering they spent most of every day outside, it was clear that solving such a problem was in high priority. " It's so cold… " Miles said sadly with his head hung low shivering a little, with a familiar depressed tone in his voice. Scourge remembered how hard he said it was surviving the winter with nobody giving him winter clothes as a kid, and immediately decided to make sure that would never be a problem for him again.

" Well, getting you a warm coat will be our first priority! I'll get ya a black one, one that looks like your leather jacket, but with warm thick lining inside of it. If we can't find one in the clothing store, I'll force someone to put warm lining in the jacket you got now. It'll be easy, don't worry. I know a guy, " Scourge said, putting his arm around him holding him close, and Miles appreciated it for two reasons at once this time, liking the warmth of it as well as the affection and love. " Thanks, Sonic, " Miles said, his smile being both appreciative and a bit strained from the cold. While their friendship wasn't perfect, he still loved how he finally had someone care about him enough to get him warm clothes for the winter.

After getting him a leather jacket with warm lining in it, Scourge set out to try to make Miles see the positive side of winter, and the first thing he did was bring him to the snowboarding hill that just opened up. As usual, he scared away everyone by running around them in a tornado and throwing them down the hill, leaving him and Miles alone. With a grin, he then handed Miles a snowboard saying, " Welcome to the most fun part of winter! Come on, Miles, snowboarding's fun! "

As Miles looked nervous, Scourge taught him how to stand on it for balance, explained basically how to move it left and right and how to brake it, and snowboarded down the hill in front of him to show it off, enjoying himself in all the excitement. Miles had to admit to himself that it did look fun, in spite of his concerns that it was too dangerous, and it helped that there wasn't really much to dodge on the way down the hill. He didn't like being left all alone, but watching Scourge snowboard from the top of the hill helped distract him from that anxiety, and soon he started to snowboard after him, carefully moving the board forwards by dragging his foot back on the snow behind him.

When the board tilted forwards as he started snowboarding down the sloped hill, he gasped, but avoided panicking and looked determined as he took some deep breaths, and soon, he was smiling at the speed that the snowboard was going down the hill, the wind rushing past him as the snowy scenery passed him by. For the first time in his life, he felt the thrills and excitement that Scourge wanted him to for so long.

By the end of it, he was giggling and laughing, much to Scourge's joy at getting him to loosen up. " Again! Again! " Miles exclaimed happily, and Scourge said, " Race ya! " before the two of them ran back up the hill. They never did go into the city to break the law that day, as they were too busy having fun.

As they walked towards the front door of their home with a smile hours before supper time, Miles said happily, " I have to admit, Sonic, winter can be pretty fun! Snowboarding isn't as dangerous as I thought it would be. " Scourge nodded, thinking, " _That's because I took ya to the easy hill. Maybe I shouldn't take the risk of stepping it up. Poor kid would just change his mind at the slightest bump in the snow._ " Miles stopped smiling at seeing his unhappy expression, and Scourge noticed and realized he had messed up. To try to cheer him up again, he said, " Hey, ya know, that's not the only thing people can only do in the winter. They can also build snowmen! "

" Snowmen?... Are those the things we ran past earlier with the branches sticking out of them? " Miles said unexcitedly. " Hey, it's something at least! Why don't 'cha at least try? Just to be able to say you did it. No childhood is complete without it! You just roll a snowball into a bigger one like this… " Scourge replied with some forced enthusiasm. He then showed him how to make a snowman, ripping the branches off a nearby tree for the arms and leaving two for Miles afterwards.

" Now you try! " he said, and Miles with a blank expression did what he was told, rolling large balls of snow and piling them on top of each other from smallest to largest, and sticking branches into the sides of the snowman he made. He didn't look too impressed, until Scourge said, " Hold on, I'll get some more stuff, " ran into the house in a blue and black blur, and instantly returned giving him a carrot, his old winter hat, and a bunch of buttons he tore off from his father's coat.

" You put the buttons in the snowman's middle section and then give it eyes, give it a hat after that, and use a carrot for the nose! " Scourge said cheerfully. " You'd waste a perfectly good carrot?! " Miles exclaimed missing the point completely, and Scourge looked at him with concern, seeing that even months later, he still thought like someone who didn't know when he was getting his next meal. After some brief hesitation, he said, " It won't be wasted, we can just wash it and it'll be fine. There's no dirt in this snow, just frozen water. "

Miles was reluctant at first, but soon followed through with what Scourge told him to do, and at the end of it, he placed the carrot into the snowman unhappily, before looking at the result and smiling a little. " Huh. I made that… " he commented putting his hand on his chin, a bit interested.

" It's no snowboarding, and it's sure as hell no badass law-breaking, but hey, at least you can say you did it, " Scourge said with his arm around him, patting his shoulder at the end. Miles didn't fail to take note of the fact that he was subtly telling him that he wasn't allowed to like snowboarding more than breaking the law, and sighed with downcast eyes. First it was TV, then it was reading, then it was violin playing, then arcade games, then piano playing, all of which he was constantly discouraged from liking more than crime, and now this. " What's wrong now? " Scourge asked, and soon caught his annoyed phrasing and stammered before clarifying nervously, " I'm not mad, just asking. "

Miles complained in innocent confusion, " Why is giving awful people what they deserve, against the law? W-Why is it considered law-breaking and, _rebellious_ in society? Isn't giving bad people what they deserve supposed to be a good thing? That prison does it, and they outright kidnap people and make their lives a living hell! I'm supposed to be worse than them? _I'm_ the bad guy here?! N-Not that I mind ' law-breaking ' after all the times I had to do it to survive, I'm numb to it by now. It… just doesn't make sense… I can understand my stealing food and water bottles and toilet paper from people being against the rules because I'm taking it from people who want to use it, even if they can just buy more whenever they want, the lucky bastards. I didn't have a choice. I earned the right to get what I needed to stay alive after all the _beatings_ people put me through. So I'm the exception to that rule. I get it, if everybody was allowed to do that, nobody's food would be safe. So that rule makes sense. "

Scourge rolled his eyes knowing that Miles wasn't looking at him to see it, seeing that Miles' value system didn't really approve of his stealing, and Miles continued in sad frustration, " But, bullies deserve to get what's coming to them, don't they?... You're telling me those mean gang members we fight don't deserve it? Why is that _wrong?_ Why aren't I called a hero and praised?! I-I-If the law is supposed to be based on punishing bad people, then why aren't the cops accepting what I'm doing with you? What, am I not allowed to do their jobs for them? Is that too helpful? I don't get it, what am I missing? Why are the cops still treating me like the bad guy when I haven't done anything wrong? "

" 'Cause they don't know what they're _talking_ about, " Scourge replied quickly with a dismissive wand of his hand, acting annoyed to hide his nervousness and discomfort. He didn't fail to notice the implications of the fact that Miles was complaining about that at all, and he was getting worried once again that Miles wasn't really happy with being a villain.

" I'm doing literally the same thing the cops do except I'm not kidnapping people and holding them prisoner. How dare I. And all I use is a staff instead of that short black stick they have and that ' _taser_ ' thing, that you said makes people lose control of their bodies and become helpless! I never experienced that myself, I honestly don't even know if my island's cops even had those things, but I can't imagine how bad that would be, and I've never done that to imprison someone. That's no better than tranquilizing someone with a needle! I give the worst of the world what they deserve, just like _they_ do… and those hypocrites still go after me… People try to act like they're heroes, but I fight criminals too and I'm talked about like the scum of the earth, " Miles complained bitterly.

Worried at how he seemed to want to be a hero more than an outright criminal, Scourge tried to get him back down to earth in his eyes by placing both hands on his shoulders and kneeling to his eye level in front of him, and explaining seriously, " Is that what this is all about? Being praised?... I hate to break it to ya, kid, but, they're never going to accept you as a hero. No matter _how_ much karma you deal out. You can be a hero in your head all you want, but it won't change how people see you. It's just not how people think. I hate to remind you of this, but, they're never gonna get past your second tail. You're _gifted,_ and _special,_ but they don't care. They just want you to be _normal._ "

He stood up and said while angry with the world, " Well, screw 'em! Why try to be a hero for a world of people like that? They don't deserve you trying to help ' clean up society, ' if that's all you're in it for! I thought this was about revenge! It doesn't matter whether people _thank_ you for it. " Miles couldn't help but be intimidated at how irritated Scourge was with him, but he tried to keep it together and forced a serious expression to hide his fear, with only his eyes showing that he was on edge.

Scourge continued passionately, " See, this is why I taught you about graffiti, and why I get people away from you at the arcade, and why I get so much cool stuff for free and have so many connections, and why I cut in line. None of that has anything to do with fightin' criminals. That's fun too, but there's a reason I do all that other stuff, and it's because I want people to know that I go by my own rules! No one can tell me what to do! My old man tries to control me, when he's actually _there,_ but outside that house, I'm free! I benefit from causing mischief with a reputation, as someone you don't wanna mess with, as someone people can't hold out stuff on or give the shaft! I do it to get the ultimate freedom, the kind you've been striving for since you were born! I do it to dominate the city! To be known as a badass law-breaker, who can do whatever he wants, to get my _own_ identity with my _own_ skills no matter _what_ my parents think! It's not about cleaning up the trash for me, I can have any target I want. "

There was a silence as Miles looked sad and nervous with fear in his eyes, and Scourge, thinking he might have intimidated him, reassured him more gently, " Although it's fine if that's how _you_ see it. Look, kiddo, _all_ I'm saying is, I want you to see what I see. You're free now! The only rules you have to live under are mine! And y-you know what, that's okay, because I still live under some rules, too. There are things I make rules against for myself to avoid making stupid mistakes. And even with that, I got more freedom than anyone else in the world! There's nothing I can't get away with! There's nowhere I can't run! I want you to realize that you have that freedom too. I want you to know that you're not on that island anymore, that you can do whatever you want to make yourself happy! Because you've earned it, Tails old pal. You deserve to be happy. Like I said earlier, I live life to the fullest! And I want you to live life to the fullest, too, because restraining yourself 'cause you're nervous isn't fun. Obviously don't make harmful mistakes, like I don't want ya to touch any _drugs_ or anything like that, but at least try to loosen up and have fun. "

Seeing Miles still looked nervous and uncomfortable, he compassionately put his hand on his shoulder, getting the kid to look at him, and said sincerely, " The world needs to start making it up to you. That's what I've been trying to tell you all along. Look, I can respect that you're giving jerks what they deserve. I hate those guys too! Way more than the random schmucks on the street. As much as I love breaking the law myself, I'd be furious if they did those crimes to me, so I can _admire_ you wanting to give those bozos what's coming to them. It's a well-meaning selfless noble effort. You're a sweet kid! But by restricting yourself to taking your anger out on only them, you're restricting your freedom, and your potential, and not getting enough out of a world that should be paying you back… "

Miles sighed sadly, and Scourge continued calmly, " I know it's hard to accept that the world isn't worth fighting for, everyone's idealistic at your age. I get that you don't really wanna believe it. And look, I won't force you to do anything, alright? The whole point is to get you to loosen up and enjoy yourself, there's no point if you won't enjoy it. You can keep fighting those jerks to your heart's content! Get that stress and anger out, let people keep seeing what a badass you are! Just keep in mind that you're not getting the whole cake. You'll understand when you get older. "

Miles tried to avoid looking annoyed at how he was being treated like his age was inherently making him not as smart as him, but at the very least, he could appreciate how Scourge was trying to be nice to him after scaring him and was trying to give him well-meaning advice.

He was conflicted as he walked into the house with him. Scourge did have a point in that humanity making it up to him was long overdue, but that wouldn't erase the memories that his mistreatment left and the emotional scarring it did to him, and it wouldn't get the islanders specifically to apologize and like him. It wouldn't fix his problems. Doing all the same things Scourge did wouldn't get people to like and accept him, which was what he always wanted all along. He already enjoyed himself with Scourge, with the arcade games, playing music, getting to learn all sorts of interesting new things and having someone who cares about him. Wasn't he already being made up to? And he still felt miserable at times. His life was happy, but it could be so much more.

He couldn't imagine lashing out at innocent people and getting them to benefit him out of fear being that one thing suddenly giving him a happy life. He would feel more free, but he'd always be restrained in the painfully tight shackles of his memories, his self-doubt and insecurity would constantly be criticizing everything he does and thinks, and he'd always have to do what his friend pressured him to in order to avoid causing even more tension between them. He would never truly be free, so why bother striving for ultimate freedom that wouldn't make him happy anyways? But if freedom wasn't what he wanted, what was?

The logic in him was disagreeing with Scourge's reasoning at every turn, seeing it as self-centered, entitled and hypocritical, but Scourge did succeed in appealing to the emotional side of him that wanted the people of the world to stop being threats. If they couldn't ever become his friends, they could at least become his pawns. He felt discomfort at thinking that, and continued feeling conflicted, knowing that Scourge would never change his mind. He'd never accept him for what he really wanted. And judging from Scourge's irritation with him, being more assertive about that desire would only hurt their friendship in the long run.

Scourge brought to his attention that Miles wanted to be a hero, but what was the point if people would still treat him like a villain? What if he wasn't a hero after all? What if his situation left him with no possible way of becoming one? It wasn't like there was a really terrible villain that they could fight regularly for the rest of their lives. If there was, he'd probably be happier. He'd get Scourge to fight him out of thrills, excitement, and the ego boost of being praised for it, and it was possible that Scourge would've been happier, too, and end up being a hero, even if he'd keep breaking the law. But there was simply nothing he could do, and if he brought it up again, he would only get another argument.


End file.
